


Light in Dark

by aelisabeths



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Bruce Wayne is Batman, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, F/M, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Selina Kyle is Catwoman, Tim Drake is Red Robin, a sprinkle of salt, batman adopts every child
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 51,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24458563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelisabeths/pseuds/aelisabeths
Summary: After three years of battling akumas and dealing with her role as guardian, Marinette Dupain-Cheng (Ladybug) finally defeated Hawkmoth with her partner Cat Noir. The pair struggle to find normalcy and the duo disappear from the press, no longer wanting to keep the miraculous jewelry in Paris after it was so corrupted. Once Adrien (Cat Noir) was removed from his home and sent to his aunts, the pair decide that the best way to get them out of Paris is if Marinette takes all of them and leaves through an exchange program.And she ends up in Gotham, the only place that could counteract the light of her miraculous. She is left with a depleting mental health and one friend across the globe but ends up finding herself closer and closer to the one and only Damian Wayne. As Ladybug comes to Gotham, the Bat Crew watch as someone manages to finally heal some of Damian's wounds and her own.
Relationships: Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Garfield Logan/Raven, Luka Couffaine/Kagami Tsurugi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 197
Kudos: 1050





	1. aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I - I can’t explain it. I just feel like we need to get all of the miraculous out of Paris. Now that we’ve finally got the peacock and butterfly miraculous, it’s just too much power in a place that was recently corrupted with it. I had a dream, where I was somewhere else, and it let Paris heal…I think we have to do it.”

_May 25th, 3:04 a.m._

Marinette lurched forward, her chest expanding and contracting heavily. Blinking sleep away, she ran a hand through her messy pigtails, releasing them from the bands. Her shaking hands untangled the knots as she searched for a floating red blob. “Tikki?”

“Marinette, are you okay?” Tikki was suddenly right in her face as Marinette took her final shivering breaths. Marinette nodded meekly, brushing her sheets off of her legs. Climbing out of her bed was a miracle as she made her way down the ladder.

“Tikki, we need to leave Paris...I can just feel it,” she whispered, her eyes burning at the light of her computer.

Flicking open her search browser, she squinted at the screen. She began to type for any sort of program she could apply for. If she could get a fully paid trip out of Paris based on her grades, she’d take it. She did not spend three years worth of sleepless nights to not use her grades to her advantage. Any foreign exchange program could work, she just needed a long one and preferably one with the language she was learning in school, English. 

She was way too bad at Mandarin still, so America or England could work best.

“Marinette, what are you talking about?” Tikki buzzed by Marinette’s cheek, floating daintily in front of Marinette’s laptop screen. 

Marinette sunk into her computer chair, leaning back with a long exhale, “I - I can’t explain it. I just feel like we need to get all of the miraculous out of Paris. Now that we’ve finally got the peacock and butterfly miraculous, it’s just too much power in a place that was recently corrupted with it. I had a dream, where I was somewhere else, and it let Paris heal…I think we have to do it.”

  
Tikki landed on Marinette’s desk, blinking her odd large eyes at her holder and now guardian by two and a half years, “It’s your guardian sense kicking in, I think. You need to trust your gut, just like you always do. So how are you going to get out of Paris? You’re only sixteen.”

Marinette tucked her lapis highlighted hair behind her ear, “I was thinking of an exchange program to maybe England or America.”

“Marinette, what about Adrien? He’s now with his Aunt and there’s no way he can leave Paris even with this kind of imaginary independent program. _It will have to be independent too,_ a foster family will be in the way and you don’t know if there will be away to get away if you need to.”

Marinette let her head flop onto her desk with a groan, “Yeah there’s a lot to figure out. I need the cat miraculous to be in use while I’m Ladybug, right? And Adrien is the only person I trust with it, despite the whole my-father-is-Hawk Moth-incident.”

They had found out each other’s identities after the final battle. It was obvious to Marinette by Adrien’s reaction to his father revealing himself as Hawk Moth. It crushed the kid, made him need intensive therapy as an emergency situation. Even though feelings were still there, they also both agreed that they were both in no state to be in a relationship. Things were too mentally…well… to put it correctly, _fucked._

“Not necessarily,” Tikki bobbed back into the air, “You just need balance right. So since you have the power of creation, you need to go somewhere chaotic and destructive.”

Marinette laughed humorlessly, “Yeah that conversation will go down great with my parents. Can you imagine? ‘Hey Maman, hey Papa, I just wanted to go to an extremely dangerous place right after we got out of a massive attack from a terrorist who ended up being my crush’s (since I was thirteen) father.’”

Tikki sighed, “You have a point, but you have to get out of here. Do you know any destructive places that speak English? Or French too, we could just go to another French place, like Canada?”

Marinette winced as she scrolled down the page of exchange opportunities, “Hold up! Tikki, what about Gotham? It’s in America and there’s a foreign exchange program that’s fully-paid for a year, and possibly a second year if you get it renewed. They have all of those villains, definitely destructive and dangerous.”

“The Justice League? Are you sure you want to go there?”

“It’s the best thing I can think of. How about we put a pin in it and see how Cat Noir reacts to us possibly taking the cat miraculous from him. Wait - what about Alix?”

“She can handle her miraculous. We’ll just have to stay in close contact with her. How do you think Adrien will react to having to leave Plagg?”

Marinette closed her eyes tightly, already picturing the broken boy having to watch two people he trusts leave. “I really don’t know Tikki, but I just have to.”

Adrien and Marinette had become closer, especially as their class divided themselves. He and Kagami were together up until a few months ago. She was never really sure why they broke up, but her long lasting crush on her model like friend was fading. Two years ago, she had taken down his pictures and replaced them with more sincere ones and she had revoked any attraction. Even though feelings were still there after he broke up with Kagami, there was not enough to act on anymore.

Marinette had submerged herself into her work, her fashion being the one place she could escape. Adrien was her coping mechanism at one point, to feel normal, but she couldn’t use someone like that anymore. Instead, she fell onto making hundreds of commissions as a small business owner. Her reputation was there, but she mostly did cosplay pieces and pieces for Jagged Stone and a couple of others who had found out about her.

It was lonely sometimes. Hiding her feelings all the time with false smiles and the pressure of being the guardian of several highly powered pieces of jewelry. Her friendship with most people had slowly faded as she drowned herself into productivity. Marinette was always busy and soon her friends just stopped inviting her to things. It hurt but it felt like it was her own fault anyways. Alya and Lila had somehow become best friends, despite Marinette’s warnings. Lila still bothered Marinette consistently, but in the past week since Hawk Moth’s demise, she had stopped doing it as much.

She and Adrien had briefly discussed how they once felt about each other but things were so complicated once Hawk Moth was defeated. They had barely interacted face to face now that their identities were revealed. It was weird to think her partner was there all along, even with her enemy Lila at the time. Marinette never understood how Adrien was so forgiving to Lila when she couldn’t feel the same. He had her side, but to her, it wasn’t very obvious. And they both had placed each other on pedestals and at the time it felt like he was just everyone else, expecting her to be perfect. Perhaps it was just advice, but Marinette had gotten so caught up in all of the pressure.

Marinette had once thought that Adrien would understand, but he had his venting as Cat Noir the whole time. Or maybe he did understand, sometimes, Adrien wasn't as clear as he seemed to be. Marinette had to be perfect in both of her lives but unfair expectations of everyone else. Self-degrading comments became a regular, even with Luka telling her to stop. Luka always tried to be there for her, but Marinette pushed him away a bit too.

She wanted to heal like everyone else, but she also knew she couldn’t do that in Paris as much as that felt disappointing. 

Stretching from her seat, Marinette flicked her eyes around her bedroom. The pink had once made her so happy, but now it just felt like a place where she slept and worked. The miraculous box was disguised as a jewelry box (un-ironically, of course) and was settled on her sink counter top. Her walls were covered with commissions and her desk was blanketed in fabric and more sketches. Her windows were always unlocked now and her phone always had notifications on just for the news app and for her parents. Was she even really living anymore?  
Marinette hadn’t even cried in the last two and a half years. If she got akumatized, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself. Even though there were some ways to get around it as she had discussed with the future Alix, it still was scary and she thought it would be best to cover it up with positivity, even if it was toxic.

Yeah, to be really honest, her mental health was at an unhealthy all-time low.

“Tikki, I’ve given it a couple more minutes of thought - “  
“Oh that means you’ve decided with barely any thought put into it, right?” Tikki giggled, landing on Marinette’s shoulder. 

Marinette waved the kwami away, “Hush. I think I’ve got a portfolio to send and an essay to write. Do you think I should add my extracurriculars as MDC in as well?”

“You probably should use anything and everything you’ve got. Good luck Marinette, I’m sure if it was meant to happen, it will happen!”

* * *

_August 10th, 12 p.m._

“Maman, Papa, I’ve got to board soon!” Marinette steadily stood on her feet as she gave them both tight hugs, “I should arrive at around eight for here in Paris, but it will be two in the afternoon for me, okay?”

Madame Cheng and Monsieur Dupain both nodded their heads at their daughter, not-so-subtly wiping away their tears. “Okay, and remember, you better be careful! I don’t care if Gotham has these self-proclaimed heroes, okay? You promised me that the student boarding area was guarded and you better not walk around after eight at night, got it?”

Marinette nodded, grabbing her carry-on. _“Je vous aime! Au revoir, Maman et Papa!”_

They waved as Marinette got her ticket scanned by the airport worker. She headed into the tunnel with one last affectionate glance at her parents. Then she just tried to focus on the rumbling of the plane and the bright light as she got on board. The fight was around eight hours, and plenty of time to be seriously jet lagged. She’d be alright though. The miraculous box was already teleported and hidden in her student room and would be awaiting her as well as all of her boxes.

She had spent hours researching the area, the superheroes, places she could buy fabric and how her new school system would work. Marinette was even going to have to rearrange her entire eating schedule - which she was not very happy about. Her apartment was well locked and guarded by the superheroes patrol route, so she should be okay for the most part. Marinette would have a decent sized bedroom and a living/kitchen area as well. She would probably have mannequins everywhere, but she’d make it work.

Her parents did give her living money but she would be attempting to barely use it and instead pay for things using her savings from commissions.

She would also really miss her small group of friends, but they promised to all stay in contact, no matter how hard that would sometimes be with the time difference. Adrien had a very tearful goodbye with Plagg but agreed that her leaving Paris was the best option they had.

Hopefully everything would work out.

Ladybug would not be arriving in Gotham until two weeks after Marinette arrived which may not be the most subtle, but there was magic protecting her identity, so she’d be okay. Ladybug hadn’t even talked to Paris reporters since the battle with Hawk Moth and neither had Cat Noir, but it was all done to let Paris move on.

Someone should be able to move on even if Ladybug and Cat Noir couldn’t. Marinette knew she would eventually return and Ladybug and Cat Noir would be fighting a new Hawk Moth once more, but that would take years - well hopefully. Alix would be keeping her miraculous anyways, it was hers first to begin with. 

Marinette sighed and tried to relax her stiff body into the place seat. Not many people were on the plane which was weird, but Marinette was going to enjoy this bubble of peace for as long as possible. She plugged in the cheap headphones and watched a documentary on the vigilantes as the plane soared through the sky.

* * *

_August 10th, 1:58 p.m._

_Gotham City, America_

Marinette groaned as the plane landed, not feeling drowsy necessarily, but she was hungry - just in time for a late lunch. Standing up on wobbly legs, she pulled the carry-on from above and collected anything she had in her seat before exiting the plane. Giving a brief thank you to the pilots, she grinned at the tunnel and impatiently went through the security and grabbed her extra luggage before exhaling excitedly at the bustling airport.

She had her schedule tightly in one hand as and peered down at the still slightly foreign English words. Now she had a couple of minutes before a worker would come pick her up and take her to her new living situation. She followed the flow of everyone else and ended up at some fast food restaurant. She sat on the concrete outside of the airport and eagerly dug in, despite her stomach not being used to the American food quite yet.

If she was nauseous, she would never admit to it. Her luggage was piled next to her as she awaited the ride. Marinette felt so weird, without her miraculous on her ears and without the weird heaviness that Paris had on her heart. She felt like crying from joy but the most she could do was have a sincere smile on her face.

So what if she still couldn’t be normal or allow herself to get close with people, she could still live more than she could in Paris.

The car eventually pulled up and the man helped her with her things even though she was wary of him. They ended up at a very brick building but Marinette buzzed with excitement. 

Everything was going to be okay. All of her things were there, including the miraculous box with all of her kwamis. She could feel the dark presence of Gotham. It felt right though. Everything felt right then. 

Marinette began to unpack her things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi...  
> So just for any questionable parts about what has happened so far:  
> 1\. Hawk Moth has been defeated by Ladybug and Cat Noir  
> 2\. They are both around or are age 16 and so they've been fighting him for three years  
> 3\. Adrien was taken in by his aunt with his cousin Felix (I'm too lazy to get the accent for his name, sorry lol)  
> 4\. Adrien and Marinette are aware of their identities and Hawk Moth's identity  
> I think that's mostly all you need to know for now. Most of the choices I make are based off canon or kind of flow off of what we already know (this being writing when Marinette just got her position as guardian, end of season three). However, I will take creative liberty and also I am not super knowledgeable about the DC universe or even this one in particular but I'm doing my research as I go and watching the films with Damian in them. Hopefully, I'll get it mostly right, but if not, let me know :)


	2. silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re in my seat.”
> 
> Marinette let her eyes drag across the unknown boy's face, flushing slightly at the attention before quickly stumbling over herself to collect her things. She pressed her things to her chest before sliding it to the desk over and standing up abruptly. The boy raised a brow, watching her trip and fall onto her knees. Marinette’s face burned even more with embarrassment. Wincing, she pulled herself back up and slipped into the seat that wasn’t his. She uneasily watched him fall into the seat, feeling the aura of destruction around him.

_August 12th, 7:02 a.m._

Marinette had decided to ditch the pigtails she had worn for most of her life. She opted for a high ponytail with a loose black ribbon tied around it. The Gotham Academy uniform’s central color was a royal blue, consisting of a plaid skirt, tucked in button up with the emblem and a tie. She wore knee-high grey socks with hers and black flats. She certainly felt like one of those girls in those anime and manga Adrien loved so much.

She cradled her iced coffee before pushing open the large doors. She was several minutes early as school didn’t start until 7:25, but she had a streak of arriving everywhere late. Marinette did actually bring Tikki with her that morning, but she would be altering between Tikki and Plagg and always have Kaalki, the horse teleportation kwami, on her. It was best to have an easy way to get back if she needed more kwamis.

Also, she found out that the earrings would change their appearance - she wasn’t going to change them whenever, but it could be useful in certain situations. It was just a nice addition to a powerful piece of magic.

Marinette had a strict schedule to follow for her first week in Gotham. Today was the first day of school, in which she had to fulfill all of her class with high marks, then focus on some after school activities where she could. She was going to have to work her butt off to speak in English all the time, but this scholarship was so good, she couldn’t help but fight her way through it. Hopefully, it would become easier and she’d be more fluent as she went.

She also created various rules to follow herself. One was to never lose the kwamis. Another rule was to be in the background and avoid friendships. She didn’t have time for drama or for anyone to get close enough to figure out her secret. Heroes may be common in Gotham, but Ladybug wasn’t going to reveal herself to some teenager. The kwamis were too powerful to be corrupted like they were with Hawk Moth who was driven by envy, greed, and recklessness. His own love for his wife turned into obsession. The power was too much.

Hell, it was too much for Ladybug too, and she was able to hold many miraculous on her at once. The power was dragged from gods, and if corrupted like that, the world may fall apart.

Marinette had given up on a normal childhood by now, despite not wanting to.

Her first class just happened to be English, so she settled in a seat instructed by the teacher who she gave a forced smile to. Acquaintances, not friends.

Marinette pulled out her sketchbook and worked on a commission that was started to drive her insane. It was a simple concept, but putting it together was messy. They wanted stitching that she could only do by hand so it would take hours to do, and she was still just trying to get all of the details down in her notebook.

Tipping her head back, she drank a bit more coffee before seeing an angry face. _So much for no drama._

Marinette closed and reopened her eyes and continued to focus on her sketch, scribbling away. The boy leaned down and grabbed her attention again. Very, very green eyes pierced into her own very blue ones.

How were they not filtered or contacts?

  
“You’re in my seat.”

  
Marinette let her eyes drag across the unknown boy's face, flushing slightly at the attention before quickly stumbling over herself to collect her things. She pressed her things to her chest before sliding it to the desk over and standing up abruptly. The boy raised a brow, watching her trip and fall onto her knees. Marinette’s face burned even more with embarrassment _._ Wincing, she pulled herself back up and slipped into the seat that wasn’t his. She uneasily watched him fall into the seat, feeling the aura of destruction around him.

Shielding her sketchbook away from his gaze, she continued to work, trying to let herself calm down. Not a word was spoken between the two as the boy pulled out a Charles Dickens book from his bag and flicked through the pages. Marinette bit down on her lip as she studied everyone who entered the classroom.

Everyone seemed a little dull. Gotham really was the counterpart for Ladybug, it was a bit sobering. People in Paris tried to not let it control their lives, but damage wasn’t permanent there. Even then, there were still some effects from really awful akumas. 

The teacher noticed the change in Marinette’s seat and gave the young french girl an apologetic look. Apparently the boy in the seat next to her tended to be a bit rude. She listened hard for his name during roll call, but he barely lifted his head in acknowledgement to his name so she wasn’t quite sure what it was yet.

“Dupain-Cheng, Marinette?”

 _“Présente,”_ Marinette said, not bothering to cover up her french accent - the word sounded the same in both languages. 

The boy beside her tilted his head, to peer over the pages of his book. His lips were pursed, blinking softly at the girl.

Unbeknownst to Marinette, the boy, whose name was Damian Wayne, actually really liked her voice. It was like fallen snow, flowery and soft. Very delicate with the edge of the french accent. It had been a while since he had spoken to someone in french, and he really liked the accent.

Marinette closed her sketchbook, tucking it behind a textbook so it would be somewhat out of sight. She gave the lesson all of her attention, actively translating the English as steadily as possible. She felt excruciatingly nervous so she tried to copy most of the notes down, tentatively mumbling words back to remember their meaning. She was almost fluent, but everything was a bit uncomfortable. 

Once class finished up, two people wandered over to her desk, slipping in the two seats in front of her. Damian was lingering behind, putting his things into an immaculate bag.

“Hey, your name is Marinette, right?” the girl with red hair asked, tilting her head. She had a pretty face, freckles dotting her face and brilliant blue eyes.

Marinette nodded, slipping her things into her bag and standing up.

The boy glanced her over, giving her a weak smile, “And you’re from France right? Paris with the superhero, Ladybug?”

Marinette went tense for a split second, which was barely noticeable - except Damian noticed of course. “Yeah. I was from Paris when there were akuma attacks for the past three years.”

“We were wondering if you understood what was happening in the last battle,” the girl finished, giving Marinette a hopeful smile.

Marinette looked around, practically begging for the ground to split over and swallow her whole. _Of course Marinette knew what happened,_ she _was_ Ladybug. However, she should only know as much as a civilian, “Eh, no, sorry.”

The pair gave her a furrowed gaze, but Marinette just quickly left the scene. She couldn’t escape her other persona and Ladybug hadn’t even come to Gotham yet. Plus, the last battle had been nightmare fuel for her ever since that day. It felt wrong to discuss it without reacting to it. Watching her partner die slowly, inside and outside as his father reigned triumphant without care of his dying son. _We’ll be better, my Adrien. In the new timeline with your mother._

Marinette could feel the burning sensation on her skin, and she felt herself choke. Gasping slightly, the bell rang and Marinette had to lean up on a locker for support, not realizing she had stopped walking. She exhaled quietly, before removing her cheek from the freezing metal surface.

What a great start to her first day at Gotham Academy. It could be worse though. It could be her old _lycée._ She could have to deal with Lila. Or Alya. Or the judgmental stares that followed her in her last few days there as she supported Adrien at every turn. Having a terrorist father made him a terrorist’s son and everyone hated him so _unfairly._

It made her so sick. If only they knew he fought his own father, and died over and over for it. If only she _didn’t_ know that. 

Fucking second chance. Fucking miraculous cure. 

It hurt the most when only she could remember it all.

Marinette had managed to make it to her next class, but this time she had to claim she was lost and introduced herself. Before noticing the fact that the only seat empty was next to her last seatmate. What was it with this kid? Why did literally nobody want to sit with him. Kind of harsh.

The teacher interrupted her thoughts and told the class to go through the textbook and answer the questions on page twenty.

Damian held back a glare at the fact that almost all of his classes where he had a desk all to himself were now taken by one of his father’s scholarship students. He tried to recall her file that he had snuck a little more than a peek at. Her name was Marinette Dupain-Cheng. From Paris, France, and before applying for the two-year-long scholarship program, she had attended _Le Collège et Lycée de François-Dupont_ . A fairly prestigious school for a public school, he supposed. Apparently, a couple of famous kids went there, so he guessed it couldn’t be too bad. Her family owned a _boulangerie et pâtisserie_ and were well known for it too. Into fashion but that was all he could think of when he recalled it. Nothing too special, mostly boring.

Straight A’s when they transferred the French grading system into the American one. Her essay was apparently very good if she ended up being one of the kids who got the scholarship. He hadn’t bothered to read it even though she was the only one who ended up at Gotham Academy.

Damian had already pieced together some traits of hers. She naturally had drawn people’s attention, there was something about her. Like a fly to alight. Despite this, she brushed off most encounters and avoided human contact. Her smiles were so fake that it made his stomach churn. It made her less likable to be honest. Why bother painting a positive picture when you’re so dull inside? Also, mentions of Paris seemed to cause a slightly haunted look in her eyes which wasn’t completely strange but gave him the grounds for questioning her. 

She also was tired and worn out looking. Heavy dark bags settled beneath her eyes and she still cupped her coffee cup to her chest as if begging for it to refill itself. Maybe that’s why she didn’t like human interaction. She was basically a Tim. Maybe Marinette was an insomniac?

Damian didn’t really care too much about the people at his school, but he obviously did background checks on _all of the students._ He knew some were the children of villains, and some were the children of heroes. He didn’t bother those students and they didn’t bother him - if they knew his identity. 

He rested the textbook he was currently skimming on the table and sighed to himself. Damian never wanted nor needed to go to school outside of his house, but his father insisted. It felt kinda ironic when Damian implored – not begged, Damian Wayne _did not beg_ – to not go to school after sneaking out of the house so much when he was ten. His argument was that he wanted to go out on his own terms; it wasn’t about just being out. However his father claimed it was the best way to stay out of speculation. No one could figure out that there was something different about the Waynes, _ever._

Damian finally conceded but it didn’t mean he liked going to school. The classes were boring and way below his level of education. Instead of learning different ways to fight, he was learning a language he was already fluent in. It was pathetic and it was belittling. The worst part was, though, the kids. He never really liked people his age. He was basically a mature adult when he was ten and didn’t understand nor care about their business.

Despite all of this and obviously wanting to be left alone, Damian Wayne was still at the core of gossip. People were just so downright pitiful sometimes.

“Now, review your answers with your partner,” the teacher spoke, sitting down as she watched the students begin to converse among themselves, _“including you, Mr. Wayne.”_

Damian grumbled under his breath before looking back up at Marinette. Her eyes were focused on the window instead of on him, so he snapped his fingers to catch her attention.

Marinette blinked in surprise, before pulling out her answers, “Sorry.”

She gave him one of those awful smiles, and Damian forced bile down his throat. Sighing, he placed his paper next to hers, noting the clean handwriting and the answers that did match his own. 

_“It matches,”_ Damian mumbled to her, before removing his paper from the comparison and placing it neatly next to his textbook. 

Marinette made a noise of acknowledgement before pulling out her sketchbook once again. She was desperate to get this commission ready to be made by the end of the day.

He had caught a peek at her work and was pleasantly surprised. The sketches were crisp and well done and tidy handwriting mentioned every detail that would be in the piece. The actual article of clothing was rather intricate and obviously done by someone with extensive knowledge. He pondered over whether or not she could actually make it.

Marinette curled herself and the sketches away from Damian, making him roll his eyes. He studied her uniform, noticing slight edits to make it fit better or maybe just look better. She must be seriously considering fashion as something to go for. _That takes guts._ (This was basically his way of saying he wasn’t sure she could make it - but give it time).

He briefly wondered if she had heard the rumors about him being the Ice Prince. He wasn’t completely socially inept. He knew that ignoring attempts at conversation made him more unlikable. But he wasn’t here to be likable, he was here to act normal.

Damian Wayne was once an assassin. He had once gone to a monastery in the Himalayas when he was ten to find himself and had come back mostly better. Even after six years though, he still had a temper and found himself still arguing with his father a bit more than he should. Communication was not great between the two but they were figuring it out.

 _Justice not vengeance._ That phrase still rang out in his head during battles, not that he would ever admit to his father – well not again anyways.

However, being able to control your anger was different than being able to actually handle normal social situations like a non-assassin. Luckily for him, most of the kids at his school just thought that he was cold, not socially awkward.

Marinette finished her sketch, dusting off eraser crumbs from the crack of the pages. She stared at it carefully, reanalyzing it. Jagged would like this commission, too bad it's not for him. She could recreate it, but it wouldn’t be from the heart like her usual pieces. Marinette gave her seatmate a once-over trying to get a read on him.

Marinette had become very good on thoroughly understanding people and how they might react to situations. It helped her in battle and it helped in preventing some akumas in her own classes. This boy though, whose name she still hadn’t been told - and boy, was she in for a shock - had closed himself in ways that she could find very familiar. She didn’t know where she had seen something like this happen before, but she had. 

He was cute, she gave him that. He had slicked up his black hair just a little bit, but it still somehow didn’t look greasy and looked fluffy. His eyes were like springtime grass, yet they managed to feel dark, threatening. Slightly muscular, from what she could tell. A very Cat Noir build, but a bit stronger (so maybe not _slightly_ muscular, but Marinette was withholding from giving him a lot of credit). His lips were drawn in a taut line and she hadn’t seen him break his ice cold glare yet. _Very_ welcoming, as far as she could tell. 

The boy seemed to be highly intelligent, seeing as he barely paid attention in class and got all of the answers right on the textbook page. She was still debating on that, intelligence was about more than just one lesson. 

Running a hand through her ponytail, Marinette brought the ends forward and picked at them until the bell rang. The boy left immediately this time, but she swore she saw his eyes flicker to hers. He may be curious, and him being curious was a threat. Sighing, she clambered out from her position and headed down the opposite hall, relaxing at the fact that she would finally have a class without the boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi,  
> Thanks for your really sweet comments on the first chapter! Also, special thanks to one of you (owlover1) for suggesting a series of Batfam stories for me to read. It was super helpful in analyzing the relationship between the members of the team. They all are very detail characters and react in very particular ways.  
> I've seen a lot of ways for Marinette to act around Damian but I sort of felt that she would want to be quiet and remain unnoticed (not that it works super well, but she's trying, poor baby).  
> Constructive criticism is always welcome of course and I'll be trying to update around the same time daily so keep an eye out for that!  
> :)


	3. phone calls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightwing and Rovin paused at the sight of a shadow pacing around on one of the balconies. There Marinette continuously paced as she tried to control her thoughts, murmuring them under her breath. 

_August 13th, 1:12 p.m._

Marinette was currently on her forty-five minute lunch break, and was only eating a snack when her phone rang. She picked it up carefully, glancing at the contact name. It was Adrien, who hadn’t called her yet since she had left for Gotham. Marinette analyzed the area she was in, making sure nobody was near. She was currently situated in a stairwell, so it wasn’t too much of an issue but she’d have to keep her eye out.

She tapped the answer button and raised it to her ear, “Adrien?”

“Hey Mari, how are you?” Adrien asked but his attempt at small talk was futile.

“Fine. Are you okay? It’s seven in Paris right now, yeah?”

Adrien made a noise as he noticed the time gap, “Crap, you’re still in school right. Do you want me to call you back?”

Marinette exhaled a quiet laugh, “No, you’re good. I still have twenty minutes before my lunch break is over. It’s actually ridiculous how short the lunch is here, but because this is a ‘prestigious’ school, the food is pretty decent. For America, I guess.”

“How are you going to survive, baker’s daughter?”

“Painfully. Now let’s talk about you, why are you calling me? Not that I mind or anything.”

  
Adrien sighed, and she could hear rustling on his side, “M’lady," if he was originally planning on saying something coy, it fell short, "...my… my father attempted to get in contact with me from prison. He wants me to go and meet him. I don’t know… I don’t know what to do or think right now.”

This was one of those situations where Marinette wished she actually knew what to say. She closed her eyes and steadied her breath. She had never been in an abusive relationship like Adrien had been. She knew what happened during Chat Blanc and how his father akumatized his own son. How he let the world crumble beneath his son’s poor mental health that he forced upon Adrien. It still made Marinette tense up. 

Those icy eyes piercing into her own. The psychotic nature as he told her over and over that he loved her and they were meant to be together before trying to attack her for her miraculous. He just wanted everything to go back to normal.

The most ironic thing was that Gabriel Agreste made his son have to deal with the same exact thing he was. The same thing that tore Gabriel to shreds. Making him have to deal with his pain on his own was so unhealthy. Making Adrien become obsessed with the miraculous and trying to revert everything back to normal. Except that wasn’t supposed to happen, and could be changed.

Father of the year, everybody. 

“Adrien, you don’t owe him anything. You don’t have to go and you don’t have to not go either. At the end of the day, you have to decide what’s best for you and your mental health, okay? If you’re not ready to confront him, you can wait. Or you don’t ever have to. He’ll be there for a while, so take your time and do it for you. Not for him.”

Marinette wasn’t a therapist. Adrien couldn’t go to anyone else without revealing his identity as Cat Noir, which they both knew he would need in the future - as future Alix had said they would be dealing with a future Hawk Moth too. He did have a therapist but it would always be hard for the therapist to get a good view of the whole situation.

It left the two teens frustrated and pressured by their own mental state. They both knew this situation was bad, but what else could they do?

“Also, ask your therapist. See what she says,” Marinette pressed her head up against the railing, wishing that she could be there with him. Why did she move to Gotham? Adrien needed her.

_Because she had her own responsibilities_ , she had to remind herself. Ladybug being in Paris would just pressure him to be Cat Noir. He couldn’t be Cat Noir right now.

“Yeah, that sounds good...Marinette, I’m going to let you go now, okay? Call me later?”

Marinette breathed out, “Yeah. Bye _mon chaton, je t’aime.”_

“I love you too,” Adrien ended the call, making Marinette relax her body. She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to calm down her trembling hands. How come she got all angst-y with Adrien? Raking a hand through her hair, she realized the ponytail had shifted and slumped down. 

She pulled at one end of the ribbon, feeling the creases of the fabric. Marinette untangled the hair ties feeling it fall against her neck. She had to become someone here in Gotham. She had to grow and become stronger for Paris.

Marinette held her palms up, feeling her head throb as she looked at the scars on both her hands. It was a promise she made to the miraculous. 

She took her hair back up into a ponytail and fixed the ribbon before getting up and dumping the rest of her snack into a nearby garbage can. Marinette grabbed her bag and peeked at the red kwami inside who gave her pitiful eyes. Marinette gave her a smile, but she knew it was fake. All of her smiles nowadays were fake. It was just another grievance to her never ending pool of problems. 

* * *

_August 13th, 7:25 p.m._

Bruce Wayne almost made Damian not go on patrol that day. He was in another one of those moods, an emotional whiplash compared to his good mood the day before. Once he came back from school he spent the rest of the day in a training room, shredding dummies with his katana and chucking knives with his back turned. This of course didn’t stop the previous Robins from giving Damian smart remarks and tantalizing his annoyed mood.

“If I take you on patrol today, you may kill someone,” Bruce hissed as Damian crossed his arms giving a death glare.

Damian flicked a loose curl out of his face, “If you don’t take me on patrol, I _will_ kill someone.”

“Damian,” Bruce warned, typing out something on the bat-computer. 

Damian corrected his previous statement, “I apologize. I meant _severely injured until almost certain death.”_

Tim rolled his eyes as he leaned back on his chair. He and Jason had spent the whole day at Wayne Enterprises going through meetings after meetings about environmental factors and how those could impact their future projects. They were both exhausted but they knew that taking those environmental factors into account secretly made Damian really happy and gave them high praises from Bruce. 

“Fine but the Oracle is going to keep you focused on minor crime so you don’t, hmm, how did you put it?” Bruce paused facetiously, “‘Severely injured until almost certain death?’”

  
“I’m going to ignore that and get dressed for patrol,” Damian stated, heading for where his suit was. Minor crime wasn’t great, but he hated being locked up in the house, always did.

Once they were all dressed, the Batman and the Robins headed out to the skyline of Gotham, splitting up into groups. Damian was paired with Nightwing, probably because Bruce thought that Dick was the only one who could handle Damian sometimes. Each one of his siblings had their own way of relating to Damian, but Grayson was better in the emotional stability department then everyone else in the Wayne family.

“Anything happening right now, Barbara?” Nightwing asked into his comm.

Robin hissed, “Oracle.”

Nightwing not so subtly rolled his eyes and focused down on the streets below them. Not too much was happening that night, much to Robin’s disapproval. He just wanted to release his pent up energy that he had woken up with that morning. The day had dragged on and made him more and more uneasy. Then later finding out that they would be letting some random scholarship student have dinner with their family tomorrow was not catered towards fixing his bad mood.

Marinette would be the first of the scholarship students to have dinner with them and then a couple more would have lunch or another dinner with Bruce so they would all understand the procedures and also maybe release some of the pressure from a scholarship. Bruce also just wanted to meet his scholarship students too.

Marinette may have not really talked to Damian yet, but he still didn’t like her.

“I’ve got nothing as of right now. It’s really quiet tonight which can only mean one thing…” Oracle let her words fall into place for the pair. Someone big was planning something in the next few days. 

“Fantastic,” Robin grumbled. 

“Just keep your eye out for anything random,” the Oracle suggested. 

Nightwing perched himself onto a higher area to get a better view before waving at Robin to come closer. Robin used his grapple hook to swing his way over to where Nightwing was before peering down. Two men were focused on assaulting an older lady and her husband was being restrained as he tried to worm his way out of it.

“We have one in an alley. Nothing major,” Nightwing commented quietly, before looking back down at the scene. 

“I can bring you the money, I promise! Just leave her out of this,” he pleaded with his captures. 

The two men threw their heads back with laughter before turning towards the woman.

“I’m always down for some fun,” they looked at the woman suggestively.

_Finally,_ Robin thought, _some actual action._

The pair landed quietly down in the alley way and Robin charged at the man holding a gun to the man’s head. Using his grappling hook, it wrapped around the man’s forearm and yanked the arm down to his side, making the gun fire into the dirt. Robin tugged on the grappling hook making the man topple over and release the man from his grasp. The man gave him a grateful expression before hiding behind some of the garbage, letting things figure themselves out.

Robin lunged forward and continuously attacked the man until he was passed out and released the hook from around his arm. He peered back at Nightwing to see him easily taking down the man who was attacking the woman. Robin tied the men up and called the police to take care of things. Nightwing snickered when he saw Robin lean over with an annoyed sigh.

“Not enough fighting, huh?” Nightwing grinned when Robin gave him a slightly desperate gaze. 

Robin needed something harder and found himself bored as he waited for the police, “Yes.”

“If you want, we can have a match when we get home,” Nightwing suggested, looking back at the victims. 

Robin chuckled, “We all know I would take you down with an extreme amount of ease. Are you in the mood to fail, Nightwing?”

Nightwing gave Damian a playful glare through his mask, “We’ll see about that. Don’t get too hurt when your back is on the mat.”

The duo split up once again, conversing with the victims and keeping an eye on the assailants until they saw red and blue flickering lights flooding the bricks of the alley. They both gave the police a quick run down and left, propelling through the night. A two hours passed without much happening until they found themselves swinging through a particular section of the city, near another building their father owned.

Nightwing and Rovin paused at the sight of a shadow pacing around on one of the balconies. There Marinette continuously paced as she tried to control her thoughts, murmuring them under her breath. 

Robin found his curiosity piqued and since they had nothing better to do, they stayed further back but close enough they could hear her.

“We shouldn’t be listening in, Robin,” Nightwing scolded just for Robin to raise a finger in mockery and leaned further to hear her speak in flowing French.

Her phone rang out into the dark night, making her jump in surprise before seeing the name that came with it. “Adrien? You’re calling me at… three in the morning?”

The duo raised an eye before realizing whoever she was calling was still in France and had indeed called her at three in the morning, despite it only being around nine in Gotham. They refocused on Marinette who had stopped pacing and instead bit on one of her fingernails as she listened to the boy on the other end of the call. They couldn’t hear him, but they were going to try to fill in the gaps.

“Sorry, you just… were the only person I could call about this,” Adrien told Marinette, leaning up against his new bed. “It’s about the thing we discussed early. With my father and visiting him.”

“Yeah, of course,” Marinette pulled her fingers away from her lips and leaned against the railing of the balcony. She really appreciated having one because it gave her an easy path as Ladybug and also made her feel like she was at home on her own balcony above her parent’s shop. “Did you make a decision?”

“I’m going to see him.”

Marinette froze, and ran a hand through her messy ponytail. Her eyes flickered around the skyline before turning her back to it and tilting her face towards the sky. She saw two figures in the distance and carefully chose her words - for more than one reason - trying to not acknowledge them with any sort of unusual movement of her body. Gotham Vigilantes lacked in giving the citizens personal space, apparently. Even though she was speaking in french, she couldn’t be a hundred percent positive they couldn’t translate it.

“You’re sure about this?” Marinette begged for a sign of debate left in her friend. “He tried to - You’re sure?”

“Yeah, I spoke to my therapist about this and she said it would be good if I got some closure, just like you said.” 

Marinette _hadn’t_ told him to get some closure, seeing as she thought he already got most of the closure he needed. Gabriel Agreste found the miraculous and after his wife’s death, he became obsessed with bringing her back even if that meant killing his son. What Marinette had said was to confront Gabriel. Maybe so Adrien could say what he wanted to say about the situation in a safe-ish environment. Also, he must’ve had to text his therapist, because he didn’t have therapy that day. Did he?

“Adrien, please,” she was practically on her knees, “Only go there and speak. Don’t let him cut you off or try to excuse his actions. Hold him accountable okay? The more you let him control you from in there, the less of a life you have. You’re living freely and on your own now, don’t let him change that.”

“Of course,” Adrien tried to reassure but it felt like he was saying that more for her than for himself.

“I’m serious Adrien. This is serious.”

“Okay,” Adrien stated, “It’ll be fine. I’ll tell you everything that goes down.”

  
“You’d better,” Marinette said, her voice faltering just a little, “I love you, Adrien.”

“I love you too. Don’t freak out so much, okay? I’ll be fine.”

The call ended and Marinette let out a pitiful laugh. Adrien telling her to calm down wasn’t ever going to actually make her calm down. All it did was make her more worried. He also in fact, was not fine. Whether he acknowledged it or not, didn’t change the fact that nothing going on was _fine._

Remembering she had an audience, she controlled her expressions into neutrality, embarrassed at her slip up. For whatever reason, they had taken an interest in her, and she wasn’t going to let them figure out her secret. Sighing, she put her phone away and pulled open the sliding door, went inside and closed the blinds with a sharp snap from the cord.

The duo glanced at each other. Robin was only getting more curious about Marinette while Nightwing looked like he was dying to leave. They hadn’t understood much about the context for the conversation, but it did sound intense. He was glad he could understand French and so could Damian. However, Nightwing didn’t think it sounded incriminating while Robin was still finding himself dangling the idea of her having a huge secret and that skeletons were in her closet with this Adrien.

“Let’s go,” Nightwing grasped Robin’s arm, earning himself a glare. The vigilantes swung away but Robin gave the now empty balcony one last glance. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi,
> 
> This chapter was mostly just to introduce Adrien and open up the plot to his own issues and how they impact Marinette and everyone else! 
> 
> :)


	4. wayne garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette fruitlessly covered up her surprise at the boy’s arrival. Damian was wearing all black - which she didn’t find too shocking despite not really knowing him - with a designer black turtleneck and a pair of pants whose brand she didn’t recognize. Marinette began to feel herself shift on her feet uncomfortably, not really wanting to look at him in the eyes at that moment.
> 
> “Ah, Damian, how nice of you to join us. You’re going to show Miss Marinette around the Manor,” Bruce stated, giving his blood son a look that practically begged for defiance. Damian just rolled his eyes before nodding

_August 14th, 3:34 p.m._

Marinette’s relatively tiny student housing had somehow managed to have clothes everywhere. Despite the dinner at Wayne Manor is one of her highest priorities, Marinette had completely forgotten about the fact that she should probably pick a nice outfit to eat there. She did think it was kind of nice that Bruce Wayne wanted to know his scholarship students well and treat them almost like family. 

“Marinette calm down, you literally don’t own anything that’s unfashionable,” Tikki petted her holder’s head. “Also, I doubt they’re judgy people.”

Marinette chuckled, “You doubt they’re judgy people? They are rich, and in my experience, the rich have far higher standards for everything. Not to stereotype, but look at Chloé. Even though she’s gotten way better at it, she still likes everything to be pristine all the time.”

“Adrien’s not like that.”

This only soothed Marinette a tiny bit, “Yeah, you’re right. Adrien isn’t, but he wasn’t ever spoiled - in certain ways. He did have that massive room but he’s told me on several occasions that it felt like a prison.”

Marinette sighed, glaring at all of her clothes before a light bulb basically appeared over her head, “Oh Tikki! What if I did something monochromatic? That’s super professional and trendy currently right? And some delicate jewelry, of course. Do you think you can make my miraculous look gold and maybe a bit smaller?”

Tikki watched as Marinette removed the earrings and handed them over to the small kwami. It was her day to carry Tikki around, and she was happy about that because Plagg would be an annoyance at the dinner table surrounded by gourmet food she couldn’t provide as Adrien could. Instead, she set out a platter of all the best cheeses she could find at the grocery store and set up the television for Plagg. He’d be fine. Of course, she left a little something for all of the kwamis, including a cookie (not her proudest cookie ever, but she didn’t have time nor supplies for macarons at the moment) and a bunch of sugar cubes she would be bringing with her.

“Would it be cheesy if I did red?” Marinette asked Tikki, pulling out a nice pair of red pants, a white shirt, and a red blazer. Then she dug through her ominous collection of jewelry - some that she did make, a lot that she did not - and pulled out a fragile gold chain with a diamond appearing jewel that hung from the center of it. Take this with some gold bangle bracelets, a pair of black ankle boot heels and she was ready to go. 

Tikki offered back the miraculous and it transitioned from the black spots on red to a small gold piece of jewelry. Smiling sweetly, Marinette put them on and the rest of her outfit before twirling in the mirror.

Marinette really loved the feeling of confidence that came with a cute outfit. It was one of the main reasons she wanted to go into fashion in the first place.

She left her hair up in the ponytail but decided to forego the black ribbon. Then she applied a bit heavier makeup than she usually did - really only applying a bit of eyeshadow. Marinette glanced at Tikki, “What time is it?”

“Four-thirty. We probably should go if you want to be on time, and maybe a bit early.”

Marinette nodded before picking up a matching purse (she had a slight collection going on, inspired by the shirt her grandmother gave her that she once turned into a purse) and gathered up anything she may need. Checking the time with her phone and making sure she had her key, Marinette locked the door and charged down the stairs, eager to meet Bruce Wayne - even though she was probably going to be a flustered mess.

She clambered into a taxi and watched at the passing Gotham buildings until they pulled up to an actual mansion. She felt her mouth drop at the sight of the manor that sat upon acres and acres of land. Even her taxi driver twisted back at her to give her a look asking, _are you sure this is the right place?_ _  
_She paid him quickly, before gathering her things and exiting the taxi. It had been a really long drive and it looked as though pollution had never even flickered in the manor’s direction. She found herself peering up at large gates before they opened widely for her to step in. Marinette really began to regret not bringing her sketchbook, but it would be undoubtedly inappropriate to sketch someone else’s house, right?

In front of the manor was a large circular plot filled with stone tiles and a ginormous fountain in the center of it all. Her feet struggled to move as she walked towards the fountain and dipped her fingers dreamily into the water. Marinette just listened to the water for a minute as she stared at the rest of the manor. The bricks seemed to be golden and the manor glowed down at her. Large windows surrounded her with well-trimmed bushes and hedges. Sighing heavily, Marinette continued up the long path to the door and hesitantly used the knocker three times.

She fidgeted, already feeling under dressed. Adrien was her most wealthy friend - and he was very rich, to be fair - but he never had this much money. She supposed their money wasn’t as old as the Wayne's, and their house was far more modern than Wayne Manor. It looked like the middle class compared to this place, and she wasn’t sure where that put her. 

However, Marinette was never really aimed after wealth. Her parent’s bakery was comforting and she admired it much more. Plus, once again, a big house doesn’t mean it feels big. It didn’t mean she could at least respectfully gaze at the gorgeous decorations and the work of architecture that Wayne Manor was.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng?” a voice questioned, making Marinette jump in surprise. Forcing a wide smile on her face, she turned to the man at the front door.   
“You can just call me Marinette,” Marinette suggested, tucking her hair behind her ears as she studied the person in front of her. He was dressed very formally too, making Marinette’s eye twitch. She really was under dressed and she was beginning to panic. Just a little.

“Alright Miss Marinette,” the man confirmed, moving out of the way for her to enter, “I am Alfred Pennyworth, the glorified butler and nanny for Wayne Manor. I will lead you to where Master Bruce is, so you can make acquaintances before dinner. Perhaps you can meet a couple other Wayne’s along the way, they always tend to be scattered about the place but will all also be in attendance for dinner tonight.”

“Thank you, Monsieur Pennyworth.”

Alfred offered to take her bag but she just gave him a grin and stated that she would rather keep it close if that was alright. The butler nodded, the edges of his eyes crinkling with an unknown agreement to Marinette’s fate. Perhaps he knew more than he would admit, but that was his business at the end of the day.

He led her down a couple of hallways and Marinette tried her hardest to not appear too awestruck by every single inch of the manor. By the time they reached the parlor of sorts, her hand was shaking as she fidgeted with the chain of her purse. She already knew that she was going to be extremely intimidated by Bruce Wayne.

And intimidated she was. Bruce Wayne was a large man with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes that made her shiver just slightly. Despite this, he had a sort of warm smile that held an air of amusement. Marinette could tell he wasn’t a bad person but clearly wasn’t huge on smiling as it looked a bit unnatural for him. Just a bit.

“You must be Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I am Bruce Wayne,” he offered his hand out to her, “I am very pleased to meet one of the ten scholarship students I funded.”

“One...of the ten?” Marinette mumbled under her breath, a bit of surprise echoing back into her eyes. “Wow, I’m really honored then… I am surprised I got the scholarship.”

“No need to be humble. How do you like the Manor?” Bruce Wayne asked, his own eyes admiring it even though Marinette was pretty sure he lived there.

Marinette laughed uneasily, “It’s easily the most stunning building I’ve ever seen. Eh, is it your parents?”

“Passed down a long line of Wayne’s, yes,” Bruce confirmed. 

That made her eyelashes flutter with shock, really beginning to feel out of place. However, now that she saw Bruce Wayne’s attire, she felt a little better about her own. “I have a question, Monsieur Wayne, if I may?”

  
“That was a question Miss Marinette, but do continue,” that was enough to get Marinette flustered.

“Eh, yeah, I was wondering how many Wayne’s I would be meeting tonight?”

“Hmm, my oldest’s wife and daughter, as well as one of my daughters are out of town currently, but everyone else should be here. I do have one son who is your age, Damian, and a daughter who is twenty. Everyone else is in their twenties or thirties. We also will have Miss Gordon over tonight.”

“Oh,” now she knew she would be thoroughly embarrassing herself in front of more than just the overwhelmingly successful Bruce Wayne. Fantastic.

“Damian actually goes to your school, you might’ve met him? Alfred, is he on his way down? I was thinking he could show Miss Marinette a bit more of the manor before dinner.”

The butler nodded before Bruce’s question was answered by said boy entering the room with a familiar scowl on his face. Marinette’s eyes widened at the sight of her seatmate, almost holding in a groan. The boy hadn’t even told her his name, and now she could understand a bit more why. He was a billionaire’s son. 

Marinette fruitlessly covered up her surprise at the boy’s arrival. Damian was wearing all black - which she didn’t find too shocking despite not really knowing him - with a designer black turtleneck and a pair of pants whose brand she didn’t recognize. Marinette began to feel herself shift on her feet uncomfortably, not really wanting to look at him in the eyes at that moment.

“Ah, Damian, how nice of you to join us. You’re going to show Miss Marinette around the Manor,” Bruce stated, giving his blood son a look that practically begged for defiance. Damian just rolled his eyes before nodding.

Marinette, however, wasn’t ready to spend more time with her mysterious seatmate, “Oh, that’s not necessary, Monsieur Wayne. I can just wait here until dinner.”

Damian crossed his arms at that and began to leave the room when Bruce Wayne inevitably made Marinette go join him. Her shoulders slumped before she forced a smile back at her patron and scattered after Damian.

“Damian has been awfully curious about Marinette, hasn’t he?” Bruce commented, studying the spot where his son was before looking back at Alfred.

“I can agree to that, Master Bruce.”

“Thought so.”

The two teenagers were shuffling around the manor halls, neither particularly being fond of the idea of breaking the silence. Marinette’s shoulders were tense as she clung onto her bag’s strap, refusing to look at Damian once more. Damian himself, did not like small talk, so silence they stayed in. However, Marinette was the first one to break.

“I didn’t know your name.”

“I didn’t tell you my name,” Damian confirmed, continuing to allow the pair to wander about the house hallways.

Marinette exhaled a small breath, “I’m sorry for finding out this way.”

When Damian quirked up a brow, Marinette continued, “It… doesn’t seem like something you really like people to know. I would rather let you have the option to tell me, instead of me finding out from a dinner at your own house. Eh - not that that changes anything, of course! I just feel as though I overstepped some boundaries there seeing as we have barely even talked.”

Damian trained her gaze on the petite girl, “You did not already know?”

“No, you didn’t tell me, remember?”

Damian leaned up against one of the walls of the hallway, pausing to steady himself, “So you did not hear a single whisper from the day you sat next to me?”

Marinette froze, looking down as she furrowed her brows before peering back up at the boy, “No? Why would I listen to rumors? I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet or not, but this is basically my first full conversation with someone from Gotham. I’m not exactly the most social person ever. Even though I used to be.”

Marinette flinched at her own rambling. She hadn’t even spoken that much and already revealed too much about herself. Chiding herself under her breath, the pair resumed walking further and further down that hallway until they reached a broad door that clearly led to the outside - perhaps backyard? - of Wayne Manor.

Damian was secretly taking notes of everything she had said to him, not bothering to care for her feelings in this matter.   
Before they left the Manor, Marinette turned to him, hoping for at least an acquaintance. She may not want friends, but Damian could be very useful in keeping everything in line. He clearly didn’t want friends either, so he was the perfect target. 

“Okay. Let’s redo this then.” Marinette brushed out all of the wrinkles in her outfit, and focused on Damian. He just raised his eyebrow at her antics, _“Salut!_ I’m Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I’m going to be in Gotham for about a year or two, and I am from France. I’m hoping we can at least acknowledge each other’s existence.”

Damian snorted at that before seeing that she was serious. He debated on it for a couple of seconds before rolling his eyes and opening the door for her. Marinette pouted, but left the Manor anyways. Following her outside, he watched as her eyes widened in amazement. Tucking her hair behind her ear, Marinette tried to absorb as much of the Wayne Gardens as possible. It was mostly just hedges and cypress bushes but the amount of green was beautiful in its own way.

There were a couple of spots with flowers dotting the landscape and there was a fountain in it all. Marinette hugged herself before letting out a breathless, “It’s really stunning out here.”

“It’s acceptable,” Damian commented, but Marinette took his response with a grain of salt.

Huffing, Marinette loosely let her fingers dance across the engravings of the fountain, enjoying it’s delicate existence, “I think I like this more than the Manor itself. Do you spend a lot of time out here?”

“Not particularly.” Damian stumbled over his breath when he saw the irritated glance that Marinette gave him. “I do enjoy my time out here in the mornings.”

“I can only imagine why,” Marinette seemed to appreciate the actual answer, her feet carrying her past the fountain to admire the trimmings done to the hedges. “Whoever tends the garden does a great job.”

  
“Do you have a favorite garden in Paris?” Damian found himself asking.

Marinette peered at him with big blue eyes, “Mhmm, I do. I love the ones with statues, they look so elegant. It sort of depends on my mood that day though, since most gardens are covered with tourists and you have to know Paris to find a more calming garden. Quiet?”  
“I can understand your preference then. Gotham has its own fair share of tourists, but they are reckless for the most part. Wanting to come and admire the heroes like it’s the circus.” 

“Ah, Paris also had it’s fair share of those when…” Marinette latched on her thoughts for a second, “When Hawk Moth was busy attacking Paris. I had a friend once who wasn’t even a tourist and would always jump into battles. At first I did care too much for it, but my discomfort only grew when she became more of a liability and her recklessness endangered more people than she perhaps intended.”  
Damian made a sort of humming noise, not really hating his conversation with Marinette. She was more intelligent then he gave her credit for, and she certainly was a nice change from his brothers who really only had one shared brain cell. Damian would never admit it - at least back then - but he was starting to reconsider her offer already.

Instead, he said, “We should probably get back, I believe father is waiting.”

Marinette tensed up at the thought of having dinner with a whole table of people who were much farther into the world than she was but laced her lips with a smile. Damian flicked his eyes to it uneasily, but made no comment as they left the Wayne Garden. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi,  
> We finally got a legitimate conversation between Marinette and Damian and I finally can start writing longer chapters with less painful in between descriptions. (I've been suffering but their silence was necessary so we could have more realistic reactions... *sighs dramatically*). Side note: Salut is the french way for saying hi, and it's usually for friendly people around the same age. So she's trying.  
> Anyways, next chapter we get to meet most of the BatFam so get excited. I decided to keep Kor'i and Mar'i out of it for now, but they'll be here soon.  
> :)


	5. The Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's an important note at the end of this chapter, so please check it out :)

_ August 14th, 5:30 p.m. _

The dining room for the Wayne Manor was definitely large, with a long table that took up most of the space. Marinette found herself situated in between a girl with chopped black hair and dark eyes and a far older man who had the same black hair as everyone else and blue eyes, not very different from Bruce’s even though she was sure they weren’t blood related. Across from her sat Damian, who looked like he was beyond bored at this point.

Marinette had to use both of her hands to count the amount of Wayne’s in the room. Bruce and Damian were the only two she actually knew the names of but she could guess the rest from research. None of the Wayne’s were really in the public eye, which is another reason why she didn’t know her cold seatmate was the infamous Damian Wayne. It made more sense now that she thought about it. Maybe she also understood Damian more than she wanted to be known.

Eight people were sitting at that long table. Barbara Gordon stood out to Marinette because she was the only person who didn’t have black hair - including herself. She had red curls that went down her back but did have the blue eyes that everyone else had. They had hints of green in them too, making Barbara be the only clear non Wayne there. 

The man beside her turned towards her with a sort-of friendly smile on his face, “I’m Jason Todd, welcome to Wayne Manor.”

Marinette shook his hand, making sure to not bump the table, “Marinette Dupain-Cheng, thanks for having me.”

Her eyes analyzed his leather jacket - which she could tell wasn’t real leather, which surprised her - with a loose black tee shirt that was tucked into jeans. She had heard that he did do things for Wayne Enterprices but he mostly focused on helping children with poor backgrounds and focused on areas with a lot of drug-crime and tried to develop a better system for those areas. It was really admirable work, and Marinette felt herself shrink under his gaze.

When she mentioned the Wayne family being successful, she meant it.

The girl beside her exhaled and offered her hand as well, “Cassandra Cain. I read your essay, it was good.”  
Marinette flushed, “Thank you.”  
“You read her essay?” Jason teased, “Proud of you, Cass.”

Cass rolled her eyes and Marinette felt like she was missing something but didn’t linger on that for too long. Alfred set out everyone’s dishes and Marinette felt herself grow disappointed when he didn’t sit down himself. She had already started to like Alfred, he had a nice warmth to him. Wisdom too. 

Bruce Wayne continued the introductions, “You know by now, Damian Wayne is sitting across from you, and beside him are Tim Drake, my third eldest son and Dick Grayson, my eldest.” Dick Grayson waved at her and Tim offered her a smile of sorts.

Was there a single Wayne that wasn’t intimidating even when they smiled? Marinette was beginning to understand the answer to that was a no.

“Then there’s Barbara Gordon on the end, next to Tim.” 

Bruce settled his eyes on Marinette, who squirmed, “So you mentioned fashion in your essay. Something about your brand?

“Yeah, I currently am the sole owner of my business, MDC. It’s pretty small and it’s not super well-known that I run it, but I do have really good customers.”

Something clattered into the background making Marinette flinch in surprise. Tim had dropped his fork, “Oh, I’ve heard of MDC! You did Jagged Stone’s outfits a couple of times, right?”

“Yeah, I did a few for him, nothing special,” Marinette squeaked, shoving a forkful of food into her mouth, avoiding Tim’s excited stare on her. Most of her brand was cosplay designs, but she had done a few for Jagged, some for Clara and occasionally a couple of fancier outfits for whoever was paying. Then of course she had that collection she did once with Adrien and the couple of times she made a collection of jewelry and sold them. Jewelry making wasn’t her specialty but it was fun.

“A few?” Tim asked, tilting his head in at the sight of the girl’s nochalance, “You did like his whole tour and a couple for a music video.” Marinette shuddered, remembering how hard it was to do really breathable outfits when Jagged wanted a particular design for them.

“I designed one of his albums too, but that's a bit more top-secret.”

She felt her face heat-up at the attention so she focused on her salad. 

Bruce Wayne shifted in his seat, “That’s one hell of a resume, Miss Marinette. You managed to maintain straight A’s during this too and were your class president?”  
“Ah yes,” Marinette breathed, “I did run for class president for three years. It wasn’t too much work though. I mostly helped out during akumas and helped plan class things.”

“Akumas,” Dick Grayson landed on her word-choice, “How were those? We only got so much information from the press about the akumas in France.”

Marinette fiddled with her fork, “Eh, at first it was really shocking and scary. Our Ladybug and Cat Noir had no idea what they were doing when they first started and the pair made a few mistakes along the way. Eventually, Paris mostly had a system, focused on meditation and safe places to hide during akumas, as well as anger management and moving any prisoners to a different city to make sure akumas weren’t as life threatening. Ladybug had to argue with the mayor a lot about precautions, he wasn’t exactly on board with everything and she knew politics could be a center point for some akumas. Eventually, Ladybug and Cat Noir defeated Hawk Moth in a final battle but it was pretty brutal from what we could tell.”

She tried to answer more honestly than she did when the students asked her on her first day. It became more clear to her that while the world wasn’t exactly well-aware of the details, they had heard of them.

Damian’s eyes met hers, and she blushed timidly. “What was Hawk Moth after?”

“I… I don’t know. There was something about Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculous that he wanted but… nobody told the public what the exact reason was.”  
“So why didn’t Ladybug and Cat Noir go away?” Dick continued to ask. Marinette weakly smiled at the question.

“Hawk Moth came before the heroes entered Paris, like most things. Hawk Moth had his own miraculous, a pretty powerful one, and they needed it back. It… well nobody really knows how it got lost but I don’t think it had to do with Ladybug and Cat Noir. Something more...ancient?”

Damian felt his curiousity grow more and more with each question, “You seem to know a lot and yet not a lot at the same time.”  
“Yeah,” Marinette felt her hands shake slightly, “The information wasn’t exactly out there, but I was near a fair share of akumas and I gathered some more things.”

Bruce Wayne looked at Marinette with sympathy, “Were you ever an akuma?”

“No, but my friends were. And so many children were. It was… traumatic in its own way. But Paris is healing now and Hawk Moth has been defeated. Ladybug and Cat Noir though… nobody knows where they are.”

Tim wiped his mouth, “Didn’t… didn’t Hawk Moth end up being Gabriel Agreste? The fashion designer?”

Marinette froze, squeezing her fork, her nails biting into the palm of her hands, “Yeah. He was Gabriel Agreste. I worked with him on a couple of my designer pieces, and his son…” Marinette had to remind herself to breathe, “... is my best friend. Adrien Agreste.”  
Dick Grayson suddenly sat up straighter and she felt several eyes on her, but she tried to move the conversation along, deciding to compliment Jason’s work.

Dick and Damian’s eyes met. Damian now knew who Marinette was talking to last night. Adrien Agreste. He also knew that Adrien was not Marinette’s boyfriend. Which obviously didn’t matter to him in the slightest. He thought about how she was begging him about something. He wasn’t sure what, but it included his father somehow. Therapists too. The kid was probably mentally unstable after realizing his father was Hawk Moth. He was famous too, making the situation worse.

Damian decided to keep this information in his pocket for Tim later. 

The table eventually decided to keep everything to quiet chatter, and he was surprised to find everyone around him seemed to like Marinette a whole lot more than he did. Nobody was super hesitant around her and it seemed like her presence just felt right. Even Marinette felt that, unconsciously, and realized that no one seemed as intimidating as they once did. Except for Damian, who spoke seldomly.

“Is there anywhere you particularly want to visit in Gotham,” Dick asked, “If not, we can give you a couple of recommendations.”  
Marinette gave them a thoughtful hum, “I would like to visit the art museum in Gotham, but I’m planning on waiting for the weekend.”

“That’s a great place to go in Gotham.”

“Oh but recently, I’ve been wanting to find a smaller cafe near where I live. I was wondering if you had any recommendations?”

Tim beamed, coffee shops were always his things, and he especially liked smaller ones, “I can give you a list of those. My personal favorite is Gotham Dutch Coffee. You should be close to it, I think.”

Marinette gave him a quick thanks before trying to metally remember the name of the shop. She should visit there tomorrow maybe, after school. She was hoping for some homesick cure with a cozy coffee shop. That also reminded her how she wanted to eventually do some macaron baking later. That way she could taste her parent’s best treat in her own house. Even though she face timed them everynight, right before Adrien would call her, she had to admit Gotham was lonely and it was only day four. 

Bruce Wayne’s face turned a little bit hard, “Now Marinette, I wanted to discuss your scholarship. I think you already are aware of the expectations. You are a highly honourable student but just as a reminder: you need to keep up your GPA and eventually get some after school activities when they start up. Maybe you can enter a couple of your clothing designs into contests, just do plenty and take as many opportunities as you can.”

Marinette nodded severely as the dinner came to a close. When the table was cleared (Marinette tried to help Alfred with it, but the butler refused), Marinette thanked her hosts as graciously as possible and double checked herself to make sure she had everything. Alfred walked her out and Marinette was escorted into a cab safely before returning to her student housing.

Damian grabbed Tim’s wrist and led him into a hallway, “I need you to do research on Adrien Agreste. There’s something Marinette’s not telling us about what happened in Paris.”

“Obviously,” Tim sighed, “she didn’t know what was going on. She’s a civilian. Just because she said she didn’t know too much about Paris doesn’t mean she knows more. Don’t go around just accusing people like that.”

“Come on, you could clearly see she was hiding something.”

“I could see it too,” Cassandra said, her eyes flickering to where Marinette was, “but I don’t think it's really important. She clearly went through something with that Adrien boy and I don’t think it's our business Damian. Why do you care so much?”

“She’s got a secret and I want to know it. There’s nothing more to it.”  
“Mhmm,” Jason popped up out of nowhere.

“Shut up, Jason.”

Jason Todd raised his hands in false innocence and left right as Dick came in.

“What do you want, Richard,” Damian hissed, already knowing what was coming. 

Dick huffed, “You need to leave Marinette alone, okay? It’s not your place to judge and she clearly has some _personal_ problems to deal with that you seem to want to dive into. That’s her own business and you researching her is unnecessary. I know it’s you needing to have control, but you need to let it go.”

Damian threw his hands up in aggravation, “Whatever. Fine. I’m heading upstairs so leave me alone or else there will be consequences.”

“For us or for you?” Tim questioned, just barely dodging the knife that Damian immediately threw, “Seriously?”

Damian stormed upstairs while his siblings just stared at each other.

“Do you think he has a crush on her?” Dick asked, pulling Damian’s knife out of the wall with an eye roll.

Damian’s siblings burst into laughter, even Cassandra was almost to the floor from laughing so hard. The chances of Damian liking someone were very slim, and in their defense, Damian really didn’t like Marinette at that moment in time. He was only tolerating her presence but admittedly, she had become friends with Damian faster than anyone else, if you could call them that. Damian’s crushes were always rare, only really happening like once every couple of years. Marinette was different though. Very different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi...  
> I hate to do this when the book has just started to be published, but...I won't be able to upload any chapters for a week after this Saturday for personal reasons.  
> To make up for this, I will try to upload a few chapters before then, but I'll be pretty silent after Saturday.  
> Don't worry though, these chapters are about to get really interesting as I finally introduce one of the main plot points in the next chapter (chapter after next? anyways...)  
> Bye, and stay safe!  
> :)


	6. The Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heh, so we get our first major plot point in this chapter and the next one. :) It's also the longest chapter so far, which means I really enjoyed writing it.

_ August 15th, 6:45 a.m. _

_ It was way too early in the morning for this bullshit _ , Damian thought, angrily staring down his oldest brother. Dick was glaring straight back over the rim of his coffee cup, slurping the liquid louder just to piss Damian off. Damian schooled his annoyance, but Dick had lived with him long enough to know when his little brother was peeved. Exhaling at the puff of steam, Dick took one more sip of his coffee.

Damian slammed his fist down onto the counter top that had their breakfasts on it.

Dick wasn’t usually this annoying, but he could be when he wanted to. Dick Grayson just quirked a brow at his brother to further the frustration just a bit more, “Got a problem,  _ demon spawn?” _

“What is your problem, Richard?” Damian growled at Dick, not bothering to cover up his irritation, because at this point he could care less, “Do you have to be an insufferable asshole all of the time?”

Jason had just entered the room, and immediately figuring out what was going on, he popped out a “Language” scold from the background even though he had no right to. Damian was basically on fire at this point from his brother's antics.

“My problem, Damian,” Dick drawled out, putting his cup in the sink lazily, “is that I have to tell you when to back off when it comes to researching people.”

Damian pinched the bridge of his nose, “This is so _ridiculous._ Marinette Dupain-Cheng is certainly hiding something. Why does it bother you that I’m trying to figure it out.”  
Dick sighed, sitting down at one of the chairs in the large kitchen. “Damian, I understand why you’re acting like this, but Marinette needs to be left out of your research. She is clearly dealing with something sensitive, even if it’s just her friend Adrien’s problems. The more you look into her past, the more she becomes like a story to you. She’s real and human and she’s also not a threat. I hate to be stereotypical, but how would you feel if she was researching your past as an assassin with some fancy high-tech computer and made all of her choices around you based off of that.”

“You don’t know that she’s not a -”

“You really think dad just plucked a random student from France? He did his own version of research, just a routine check. Marinette’s clean, Damian. Let it go.”

Damian gave in, but tried to let it be invisible. Dick was clearly tired, and ready for Mar’i and Kor’i to return. Damian hated to admit that he was a tiny bit excited to see the young girl himself. Mar’i was basically the glue of the Wayne household. While she would have to sit out on dinners with all scholarship students - her powers did not like to stay hidden yet, and needed to stay secretive for now - at least she would be home.

Damian picked up his school bag and headed off to where Alfred was waiting. The family butler silently led Damian into the car and drove him to Gotham Academy. 

Damian wasn’t quite ready to hear Alfred’s perspective on Marinette quite yet. He probably already knew more about Marinette than Damian and had only met the girl once. Crossing his arms, Damian stared out the window, watching Gotham’s buildings pass by.

Exiting the car, Gotham Academy’s students who were wandering the courtyard paused to study Damian. When his eyes met a couple and they could see how he wasn’t in a great mood, the other students flinched and looked away, not wanting to mess with him.

Someone just didn’t get the memo, and that person was just so luckily, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Her eyes were fixated on her phone as she waited for Adrien’s reply to a short text message, buzzing with energy. Coffee was in one hand and her phone was in the other. And she was walking, trying to get from the library to her next class (she had checked the library to see if it was often full in the mornings and to her excitement, it wasn’t).

Then there was storming Damian, who expected everyone to move out of his way. His eyes were dead set on looking ahead that he missed the much shorter girl until she crashed into him, a small gasp escaping her mouth as her body flung forward. 

Her thermos fell to the ground with a clatter and everyone around the duo were now focused on the soon-to-be wrath of Damian Wayne.

Damian was a little too strong to be knocked over by Marinette but he had stumbled back a bit before catching her in his arms. Marinette’s eyes were wide as her mouth spilled with apologies, her phone still clenched tightly in one hand. To everyone’s surprise, Damian shifted her so she could stand on her feet and picked up her thermos before bumping her shoulder and went into the classroom without a word.

Marinette furrowed her brows before scrambling after him. The pair both fell into their seats when Marinette glanced at him, “Thank you.”

Damian rolled his eyes, pulling out his school supplies for the class, “You need to be less clumsy. It’s a miracle you’re still alive.”

Marinette sighed, holding out her hand, “My offer still stands, y’know. Not friends. Acquaintances.”  
“My response remains the same. How would being your acquaintance help me?”  
Marinette laughed, but it didn’t reach her eyes, “Damian, it’s just acknowledging each other’s existence, not an actual relationship of sorts. We can have mediocre conversations about things that don’t matter and partner up on group projects. It’s not severe.”  
Damian didn’t say anything and lightly smacked her hand away. Marinette shrugged and patiently waited for the teacher’s arrival. Damian found himself sneaking glances at Marinette, but he supposed he was only doing it so he could figure her out. 

She looked exhausted, but she always did. Permanent eye bags. Her hair color was actually fitting for her, something fun but mature. Just indigo highlights to bring out her blue eyes. Marinette had the nicest eyes he had ever seen, they just made you feel comfortable. Bright blue eyes, the color you would see if you had fallen to the bottom of the ocean and then saw light shine through the waves on the top. They were a very unreal color. Now that Damian was actually looking, he could see freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks, making her look younger.

Marinette peered at Damian, making her seem smaller as she took him in, “What?”  
Damian froze, backing down immediately, but didn’t say anything in response.

The teacher finally came in, her hands holding large packets that she passed out to the class, “Today, we are going to start your first project of the year. Everyone should choose a partner, but this is a warning, who you choose will vastly impact your grade. This class has an even number of students so nobody should work alone. Including you, Damian.”  
Damian was getting tired of this teacher making pointed statements at him. Huffing he watched as many started to partner up before realizing that many people in his class were staring at him with excitement. He did not want to help someone else’s measly grades. His eyes landed on Marinette who was smirking to herself before waving at someone across the room.

Damian attempted to bury his pride, since he knew the only person he was willing to work with was Marinette. Grumbling to himself, he tapped her shoulder and she turned towards him, holding back on her arrogance as much as possible, “Yes?”  
“Dupain-Cheng, you better not make a thing out of this.”  
“Whatever do you mean,” Marinette replied innocently, “I was just going to pair up with -”  
“Do you want to be my partner?”

“Not want, necessarily, but sure.”

Marinette explained to the girl that she had just partnered up with Damian and the girl laughed and commented about how she understood and would too if Damian let her.

“Do you know that girl?” Damian asked.  
“No, but I’m far more approachable than you are.”

Marinette hummed to herself, “I’m glad I won. You seem like an acceptable partner, Monsieur Wayne.”

Damian huffed, “You may have won this battle but this is a war.”  
“How so?”

“I know you’re hiding something, Dupain-Cheng.”

Marinette chuckled, “Yes, and?”  
“And, I’m going to figure it out.”  
“Good luck with that. Plenty of people have secrets Damian, and I sure you have some yourself. Why bother?”

“You’re the most interesting thing that’s happened in awhile,” Damian stated, flicking through the project packet.

“Damian. You have villains and vigilantes. Gotham is not boring.”  
“Never said it was.”  
Marinette felt her cheeks heat up as she shook her head. “Fine.”

The duo fell into silent agreement that the only thing they were going to talk about was the project and that’s all they did as time passed.

“We’re going to need to work on this out of school,” Marinette sighed, “Do you want to come over to my student housing in the next week?”  
“Alright. I am free Sunday night,” Damian mentioned, and Marinette nodded.

“That works. We’ll probably have to meet once more, but we can handle that later.”

_ August 15th, 10:41 p.m. _

The day had faded away, and Marinette soon found herself stuck under a pile of school work and projects as MDC. How she was going to do all of this and Ladybug was a mystery to her, but she’d figure it out. Sighing loudly, Marinette got up from her spot on the couch, shifting her laptop off of her legs.

She made her way to the kitchen to realize she had already ran out of coffee k-cups and her heart plummeted. To be fair, she had only done half-shopping on the day she first arrived, and had gotten only enough for a week.

“Plagg, we have a problem,” Marinette whined. Today was Plagg’s day of course.

“What?” Plagg asked before viewing the empty spot where Marinette’s coffee should’ve been. He gasped loudly, “Your coffee! Oh the tragedy. What are we going to do?”  
Coffee to Marinette was like camembert to Plagg. He recognized this.

“Erm, well, don’t tell Tikki but, we need to go get coffee somewhere and if that coffee shop is open...maybe we can go there?”  
Marinette quickly google searched it and saw that it was open all night. Smiling brightly, she pulled her bag off of a hook, “C’mon Plagg, if we’re careful, there shouldn’t be any issues, yeah?”

The kwami went into her purse and she quickly fled the apartment and locked it with one last glance at her chaos. 

The streets of Gotham at night weren’t alike the streets in Paris. The alleyways seemed dark and endless, and the quiet murmur of things that were going on scared her just slightly. Hugging her body close to herself, she followed her google map directions that she had memorized and eventually found herself at the small shop.

Pulling the door open, she let the smell of baked pastries waft up into her nose. Giving a warm smile, she sauntered over to the counter and plopped into one of the seats. A man working behind the register came over to her with a questioning look, before asking for her order.

“Can I have one iced coffee please, and one of those almond pastries.”

He placed the pastry in front of her and she quickly paid him with the small amount of cash she brought. She did not, in fact, bring her debit card or more than twenty dollars. She had to play it safe, and if she lost her purse and wallet, at least she wouldn’t lose much. Marinette kept her phone in her pocket and was working on making a necklace to fit her key onto, but that would be for later. It was in the other pocket. 

Marinette watched him brew her coffee with a satisfied smile on her face. She bit into the pastry while she waited, enjoying it’s heat as she studied the place. It was cozy, that’s for sure. Exposed wood lined the walls and had making bookshelves tucked into corners of the shop. It had wide windows that were stuffed with all sorts of green plants. Some walls were just black and filled with chalk scribbles. Seats were near windows and the bookshelves and up on a platform was the counter where Marinette sat.

He gave her the coffee and Marinette eagerly sipped it with a sigh, “Thank you.”

“Can I ask?” the barista questioned, propping his elbows up on the place beside her. She noticed that it was basically empty besides her and him. He had another coworker who was wiping the tables and there was one more person but they looked like they were in college.

Marinette gave him a lopsided smile, “I’m an exchange student. I have a bunch of homework and I do fashion on the side. And I ran out of coffee.”

“Hmm,” he tilted his head, “If you’re interested in fashion, why Gotham in particular. We have fashion, but it’s not as crazy as New York or Paris.”

“I’m actually from Paris. I got a lot of information from there, but I kind of wanted to leave after all of the akuma attacks. At least most Gotham villains have some sort of distinct fashion, all of our victims wore the most gaudy outfits.”  
He laughed, throwing his head back slightly, “Okay then. I’ll leave you in peace.”  
Marinette nodded and continued to drink her coffee and eat her pastry before spinning on her seat and gazing out the window. It was really dark in Gotham, it rarely was sunny out. You couldn’t even see the stars out and Marinette hummed to herself thoughtfully. She pondered over whether this was better or worse for patrol. She leaned on worse.

Your enemies couldn’t see you, but you couldn’t see them either.

Marinette had already started on a redesign for her Ladybug suit, planning on making it far more dark to begin with. Ladybugs come in all colors, and ruby red might be slightly noticeable in Gotham’s darkness. It was just like the earrings, she hadn’t messed with it much before, wanting to be recognizable (and most akumas didn’t do unfair attacks and most were during the day too) but now she would want to disappear.

A shattering noise echoed from outside, and Marinette jumped up from her seat with a wave of surprise. Leaving her precious coffee behind on the counter, she slinked toward the window to peer out.

“I wouldn’t recommend that. Go over there,” the barista hissed, pointing to a space underneath one of the tables. Marinette waved him away, trying to see what was going on. Suddenly, two beady eyes peered into her own and she stumbled backwards, feeling a slight burning sensation crawl up her arm.

Now feeling the need to hide, Marinette scrambled under the table, recognizing the fact that she was not, currently, a superhero.

That’s when the coffee shop’s window smashed.

Glass shattered and fell down from it like snow. Marinette held her arms across her face and ducked her head down to protect her eyes. Hissing at some glass that managed to slice her arm, she cowered back just a bit more.

That’s when she saw him for the first time.

The light in the coffee shop was smashed as the culprit glared down at Marinette and even without him trying, she felt fear creep up onto her skin. Eyes like beetles and a sack that drowned out facial features, Scarecrow was a monstrosity.

Marinette felt nausea hit her stomach. She wanted to close her eyes and curl up, but if she did that, she would be admitting defeat.

Scarecrow bent down to level with Marinette, a wicked smile etched onto his face with that threaded smile. He grabbed at something from his side but she never saw what it was when he was knocked over.

Shots echoed out from the shop and Marinette felt herself holding her breath as she counted backwards in English.

She could tell who was there now by their silhouettes. Batman was there, as well as Robin and Red Hood. She assumed more were coming and that the fight was new, not that it travelled. Scarecrow had some henchmen who weren’t too much of a fight to take down. They were all equipped with something special though.

Her research bled into view. Scarecrow was famous for making people scared with a component. Sometimes it was injected, sometimes it was inhaled. Maybe he had both with him, but Marinette searched through her bag for something. She remembered when she took down Rose and had to use something to pinch her nose shut. Sighing, she realized she had nothing and no lucky charm to get it. 

Creeping out from her position, just slightly, she analyzed the fight. They seemed to be ganging up on Robin just a little. He was taking them down with mostly ease - she found herself impressed - but she watched as one grabbed that god-awful cape of his and he had to steady himself and kick backwards.

He may have been talented, but no one’s perfect.

Her eyes flickered to Batman who was trying to fight Scarecrow himself and Red Hood who was also busy. She kept close to the walls, but was out in the open, only hiding in the shadows. Trying to avoid the glass, her eyes latched onto Robin just as someone was pulling out a needle.

Marinette felt herself dive in with a recklessness so unlike her. She quickly pushed Robin off balance and onto the floor while quickly rolling off of him. Marinette tried to control her body so she would reveal too much strength or flexibility but swiped at one of the henchmen’s legs and he toppled over as well. Grunting she dodged a foot trying to stomp onto her and pulled herself back up, now noticing that Robin had already re-situated himself into a fight. He knocked out someone who tried to come for her but nobody saw Scarecrow grab her until he had his hand around her neck and pulled her up.

She should’ve just let Robin get stabbed, but  _ no  _ she had to go all,  _ I’m a superhero out of costume on them.  _ His fingernails were long and pinched into her skin. She did not want to look down and see how disgusting they were but she shouldn’t have been surprised when he managed to release some fear toxin out just for her to accidentally inhale as she gasped for air.

His hand was putting too much pressure on her throat, it was hard to swallow and her hands wrapped around his wrist to try to knock him off and support herself. Her eyes fluttered close.

She felt the burning sensation crawl back up on her arms. Sudden power bubbled up in her stomach as she felt control wash over her. Despite not being able to breath, she stopped struggling and tilted her head upwards.

Then opened her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are so lucky that I'm double uploading today because otherwise you would've been left on a cliff hanger >:). We finally get our share of Scarecrow action, but it's probably not what you expected? Anyways...  
> :) Continue on to the next chapter...


	7. The Panic Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I like some of this chapter, but it's a bit of a filler for last chapter and next. It also may need some cleaning up for clarification but it should all eventually make sense. ALSO: Où est tu? = where are you? in french. My several years of french class is coming in handy for writing fan fiction. Who knew?

_ August 15th, 11:27 p.m. _

Marinette felt her body drop to the floor as she fell into a heap. Gasping to allow air back into her lungs, she where his hand was. She absentimindly wondered if it would leave a bruise - which of course it would. All she could hear was Cat Noir screaming and her heart rate.

She scrambled backwards tilting her head up to the ceiling as if gravity would make more air fall into her throat.

_ “Ladybug!”  _ Cat Noir yelled out, panic and dread flooding his voice.

Marinette felt her head spin as she tried to locate him in the rubble of the coffee shop. Her muscles grew all tense and she felt anger course through her bones. 

_ “Chaton? Où est tu? Chaton!”  _ Marinette cried out in french, crawling towards the glass, fighting her every instinct. Her hand trampled over the broken glass, slicing her palms open with an agonizing whimper. Her mind was only on Cat Noir.

Her eyes landed on Scarecrow. Rage coursed through her, but his eyes were only darting towards her own as Batman landed a hit on him.  _ Hawk Moth took Cat Noir.  _ She felt herself pick herself up, before leaning up against a wall, her eyes hazy with fear. The burning sensation was continuous on her forearms. 

She had never felt so weak.

Marinette eventually realized that it was the fear toxin taking over her senses, but that didn’t explain the burning sensation on her arms. Leveling her breath, all of the pain and fear went away as she numbly noted that she was not in Paris, where Adrien was. Exhaling, she refocused on the fight, grateful they were all too busy to notice her mumble about Cat Noir. 

Marinette assumed that someone had knocked the Scarecrow over or attacked him in some sort of way from the way he dropped her. He was now engaging in a battle with Batman but was defeated within minutes. Soon red and blue light blazed through the broken coffee shop windows and Marinette felt herself numbly get up. Hissing at the pressure on her open wounds, Marinette looked down at her bloodied hands (fear toxin really does make you numb to your surroundings, huh).

That was when she noticed her arms. Black streaks ran up her arms like vines, only slightly thicker than veins and were more misty. She felt herself whimper as she slowly began to understand why the Scarecrow had dropped her. He had been picked. Marinette leaned her head back onto the coffee table as she felt tears build up. It was from her final battle as Ladybug. 

She had thought that if she didn’t wear the suit, it would never happen again. She had been stupid. The miraculous required balance and would do anything to get.

Master Fu had told her several times that they worked in strange ways when he was still the guardian. How one way or another, they craved balance. Any action she made would have a reaction and that’s why Hawk Moth could never have both miraculous at the same time. Not like how Marinette did.

Her fingers searched her leg for her phone as police assessed the situation. She wanted to dart and call Adrien but a large hand clamped on her shoulder, making her body freeze. Twisting and pulling away, Marinette faced Batman.

_ Oh goodness, was she in trouble now.  _

“Excuse me, Miss, the police and myself are going to want a statement from you. You just need to recall the events from tonight and the police will let you continue on your way. Maybe a phone call to you parents too?”  
Marinette waved her hands, which were in fact bloody, “I’m not seriously injured. Calling them won’t be necessary. I’ll call them in the morning. Who should I speak to?”  
“Gordon. He will also lead you to a medic to treat your hands as well,” he pointed to a police officer not far away who handled the villains and was currently speaking with Red Hood. 

The police officer nodded when Marinette came over and it only took her a matter of seconds to realize he was related to Barbara Gordon, the one she had met at Wayne Manor.

“Name?”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

A medic had come over and grasped her hands softly before plucking out and leftover pieces of glass and drenching her hands in an alcohol substance (Marinette had to bite her lip down at that, it burned) before bandaging them up.

She slowly recounted the events and her reasoning for why she was there to Gordon as someone dumped a shock blanket onto her shoulders. Pushing hair out of her face, she peered to the side to see a steely eyed Robin, who looked pissed.

_ Oh ho ho. What a great start to my time here in Gotham. Not only did I meet the Scarecrow quite intimately, I also pissed off a superhero who I may be partnering up with in the future. Cat Noir wouldn’t even be able to make this funny and I’m sure he could come up with as many fear puns as there are words in a dictionary. _

While the vigilantes of Gotham thought that Marinette had just dipped her toe into bad luck, in reality, Marinette had been drowning in misfortune for three years and was just sinking lower and lower. Curling into herself, she faced Gordon again.

“What made Scarecrow drop you?”  
Marinette had an uneasy pause. “I… I don’t know. He just did? I thought Batman or one of the Robins had attacked him.”  
Gordon shrugged it off and soon she was released to go.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng, may I give you a recommendation?” Gordon asked even though she assumed it was rhetorical, “Don’t go out into Gotham past seven.”  
Marinette nodded with the most sincere face she could muster but she knew it wasn’t going to happen. “You’re right. I won’t do that again.”

She really wanted to laugh and sob at the same time. She made a reservation for that at home, forcing neutrality on her face. Batman approached her, and she noticed he had left the scene and came back.

“We had a feeling they were planning something. We’re lucky we came here in time Miss…?”  
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Marinette supplied once again.

“Dupain-Cheng. How are you feeling now?”

Robin landed beside Batman, his face contorted in anger, “Listen to me, Dupain-Cheng, you  _ do not  _ come into fights like that again. It was reckless and made you an extra person we had to watch. It was ignorant.”

Marinette crossed her arms and bit her lip, “Then maybe you should’ve been more careful and not almost been hit. Or is your ego too big to say thanks?”  
Well if Robin was mad before, now he was infuriated, “Listen here -”

“That’s enough, Robin,” Batman demanded, looking at the two teens with a bit of anguish. 

Marinette felt so tired and felt like she could crumble. She no longer had her coffee, still had work to do and she was getting closer and closer to midnight. Rubbing her eyes, Marinette pulled out her phone before nodding at the superheroes and trying to walk away.

“Marinette, let Robin get you home.”

She wanted to literally laugh and cry. The more she had to deal with this, the longer the reservation became for it later.

Sighing, she watched Robin walk over with a glare and gave him her address. Not that she wanted the superhero to know where she lived, but she was too tired to care. Plus, he already knew, didn’t he? He had seen her on her balcony.

He unwillingly opened his arms up for her to move in.

Marinette did laugh this time, “No.”

She did not want to go into his arms and swing from buildings with a grappling hook. To have close contact with a stranger - who knew where she lived. She didn’t even like Robin. She didn’t even want to do that with Chat after knowing him for months as a partner. 

“Look. This is the fastest way. I still have patrol. I don’t want to do this either. Stop whining.”  
Marinette bitterly hated that he was right and soon allowed his arm to circle her waist and watched as his other arm held up a grapple gun and fired at a ledge. Their bodies swooped into air and Robin landed on a building as Marinette wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer to him. The pressure on her injured hands was not fun, but the air around them made her hands feel slightly better.

It was much harder to swing around without a super suit on, Marinette soon noticed. She buried her face into the space between his neck and shoulder and wished for the end to soon come. Not only was this close proximity mortifying, but she felt so uneasy swinging in the middle of the night. Robin, himself, felt strange with the girl in his arms. He had done this a couple of times but it was weird whenever it was someone he knew. Marinette looked so tired and felt so tiny compared to himself.

Soon they landed outside of her housing and he dropped her onto her feet. Marinette was still pressed up against his body but she soon moved off with a blush. It wasn’t as hidden as she wanted it to be with a nearby lamppost flinging light onto it. Robin stayed in the dark but she noticed a hint of one on his cheeks as well.

Hugging herself, Marinette mumbled, “Thank you.”

Robin bowed his head slightly, “Thank you as well.”

That was about as much as she was going to get from him she assumed. She watched him fade away and turned into her apartment for the night, really needing that cry session right about then.

Plagg phased out of her cross body bag and stared at her. “How are you doing, kiddo?”

Marinette opened her mouth but no words came out. Her thoughts piled on top of one another, as she thought about the final battle, and how dreadful it was. Ladybug never told Cat Noir this, but he had died. So had Hawk Moth. The wish had backfired, as it always done and there was only one option: for her to undo it. Marinette hiccuped before soon recognizing the early signs of a panic attack. Her heart was pounding in her ears as Marinette leaned up against the building for support. She felt doom trample her heart to pieces as she thought about the black streaks crawling up her arms.

She didn’t even notice how sweaty her palms were. Breathing in and out, Marinette fought her own mind trying to calm down.

“Scare...chosen,” she tried to speak but Plagg shushed her trembling words.

“Breathe. Count with me, okay?  _ Vingt, dix-neuf, dix-huit, dix-sept, seize…” _

_ “Quinze, quatorze, treize, douze, onze, dix…”  _ Marinette mumbled back. 

“Good. Adrien would get like this sometimes too. After it happened -”

Marinette felt so dizzy, “Plagg.”  
“Right. Um. Name five things you can see.”

“The brick. The concrete. The sky. Some green weeds peeking from the cement. Doors.”

Plagg nodded, “Okay, four things you can touch.”  
“The brick wall. My tee-shirt. Jeans. My purse.”  
“Good. Now three things you can hear.”

Marinette hummed, “My humming. My breath. The wind.”

“Two things you can smell.”  
“You. You smell like cheese. I don’t know how...” Marinette felt herself chuckle, “He didn’t like it did he?”

“No. But he couldn’t keep me from my one true love.”

“Mhmm. Um. I can smell trash?”

“Good enough. One thing you can taste.”  
“I can still taste the aftertaste from the iced coffee. That I didn’t finish.”

Plagg floated closer to Marinette, “Do you feel better now?”

“Yeah. Thanks Plagg. Um, do you think I should call Adrien?”

“Your call.”

Marinette felt herself forming an excuse. “It’s kinda late. Maybe later.”  
Truthfully, Marinette didn’t want him to be burdened with her problems. They were insignificant to his problems, which was why they never addressed some issues from _collège._ She couldn’t bring herself to, not when he had just found out his father was a villain.

That’s why Adrien only half knew what happened that day. He would never need to know that Marinette had ended up merging both miraculous to help cure him and his father. He would never need to know that the balance hadn’t been fulfilled yet like it did when Gabriel Agreste had used them. He would never need to know that it took hiding in Marinette and that it had finally chosen someone to balance it out.

Scarecrow.

She _would_ eventually tell him. Right?  
Yeah, she was sure she would. For now though, Marinette sluggishly headed up to her housing and decided green tea would be enough caffeine. Pushing off her commissions for MDC, she worked on her homework, soon realizing that even if she had spent that time reserved for crying trying to, she wouldn’t be able to.

She would’ve just sat there, drowning in her own self pity and Marinette would not allow that.

When her homework was finally finished, it was past two in the morning.

Marinette couldn’t sleep. She thought about working on commissions, but she could do that during lunch tomorrow and no one’s order was due soon. Plus, she still had some fabric shopping left to do and some of her packages hadn’t shipped yet.

She pulled her laptop onto her lap and quickly typed in “Scarecrow, Gotham” to her search browser.

Jonathan Crane. He had fought Batman numerous times. The thing about his fear toxin pulled up but she eventually found information about his background. His father experimented on him. Twisted sick things were done to him as a kid. He was emotionally scarred from it, leaving him in a thirst for striking fear into others. Somehow, she began to understand why he was chosen. He experimented on others like his father had done to him.

He was as vile as Hawk Moth, manipulating others and had a similar backstory to Adrien. 

To counteract her revival of Adrien and Gabriel, the gods had chosen Jonathan Crane.

Marinette suddenly knew she was going to have to stay away from him as much as possible. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit of a recap just in case it was confusing:  
> Marinette is slightly recounting the last battle as Ladybug and says that Hawk Moth and Cat Noir had died in it, so obviously, she used the miraculous to bring them back to life. The miraculous in the series rely on balance, which is why it needs a replacement. Marinette is in a special situation with it, because it didn't choose someone right away, but rather stayed with her until the right moment comes. It will be further explained in a chapter - as well as a full recount of the battle - but this chapter is hinting at what is soon to come. 
> 
> Also: This will be the last chapter for a week, but don't worry - everything's all good on my end :). I'll be back next Saturday with a chapter and continue to upload throughout that week. Thank you for all your sweet comments.  
> I'll see you soon...  
> fluff is coming up next ;)  
> :)


	8. The Croissants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mauhaha, I'm back! But if you thought the last two chapters were exciting, you're not prepared for this one! It's them. STUDYING! Woohoo! High school stuff! Okay yes, it was sarcasm, but this chapter is important to the story and therefore, not filler. Though this chapter is more fun than my usual, morbid, Marinette has mental issues style, it was kind of a drag to write. Hence the somehow still late update. I usually update at two but I couldn't find it in myself with this one. Long story, short, we do actually get some Damianette which is kind of the whole point to this story! Anyways, enjoy <3

_ August 18th, 2:30 p.m. _

Friday and Saturday had both come and gone without any other exhausting events other than worrying and avoiding any direct questions from Adrien about Gotham’s vigilantes. She had finally done proper grocery shopping and went fabric shopping on Saturday. Damian was supposed to come soon enough, and Marinette had prepped her house to be less of a mess (her rolls of fabric were in proper cabinets and her sewing machine and sketches were tucked away). Some designs were still taped to the wall but she was too lazy to take them down just to put them back up.

A warm beep from her oven made Marinette smile slightly and dart towards her kitchen. Pulling open the door, the enticing smell of freshly baked croissants wafted up her nose. Pulling them out, Marinette turned off the oven and reached forward for two short bowls and placed them on her counter. Pulling out  _ chocolate-chaud  _ powder for her to use. Flickering her eyes towards the clock, she watched it slowly tick to 2:45 and heard her doorbell ring.

Marinette dusted herself off and headed towards the door to see Damian right outside of her apartment door. Opening it up, Damian slipped into her place. Marinette felt herself grow uncomfortable as Damian’s eyes scanned every edge of her room, looking too deeply into her space.

“Are those your designs?” Damian finally landed on, walking closer to the scattered pieces of paper that lined her living room walls.

Marinette nodded, wincing as he looked closer. 

“Your clothing designs are adequate.”

_ What the hell,  _ Marinette thought reproachfully,  _ was that a compliment?  _ “Eh, thanks?”

“Where are we working?” Damian tilted his head to the side with an expression that was almost cute. It resembled a puppy dog in a way.

Marinette walked to her counter top, “We can work here for now. I made croissants and hot chocolate if you want some?”

Damian wrinkled his nose dis-trustingly, “No thanks.”

Marinette just sighed in response, pouring hot milk into her bowl before tapping some powder into it and stirring. Marinette added some cinnamon into it. Plucking a warm croissant, she plopped it beside her computer and turned it on. 

“Okay, are you ready to start,” Marinette questioned, creating a google document for planning the project. She picked at one end of her croissant, tearing off a bit of the crispy bread.

“Yes, do you need to add me to the document?”

“No, I figured out your school email,” she hummed to herself before dunking the croissant into the bowl of  _ chocolate-chaud.  _ Popping it into her mouth, she looked at Damian who was wrinkling his nose in disgust.

“What?” Marinette scanned herself, looking for where she went wrong now.

Damian pressed his lips into a thin line, “You dipped your croissant into hot chocolate. Not only is it unhealthy, but it’s just revolting.”

_ “Revolting?”  _ Marinette repeated with a hiss, “You seriously don’t keep a single opinion to yourself, do you? It’s delicious, and a french staple. Do you not do that in America?”

“No.”

Marinette shook her head, before pouring more milk into the second bowl. Repeating the steps all over again, she took one of her croissants (recipe, of course, from Monsieur Dupain) and shoved the duo towards Damian. He tore off a bit of the croissant and put it into his mouth, actually enjoying the buttery layers.

“The hot chocolate seeps into the layers. C’mon, you’re trying it or you’re going to stop judging me,” Marinette proclaimed, slipping back into her seat, eating more of her croissant. “I don’t even know how you can think the concept is bad.”

Damian unwillingly dunked a piece of his croissant into the bowl and ate it. The chocolate did soak it, but it didn’t make it soggy. It was actually really good, good enough for him to eat it despite the health risks.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Damian rolled his eyes at Marinette, but continued to eat the snack. “Alright. Should we begin?”  
Marinette nodded, and they began to work on their research for their project. Time passed hazily as it does when you’re doing schoolwork, but Damian found himself impressed by Marinette’s intelligence. She easily handled everything, but he could tell she only got there through hard work, not talent and pressure like Damian. Everything was organized perfectly and Damian admired the thoroughness of her work.

“How is it already five?” Marinette questioned, peering at her phone. Adrien was supposed to call her today, after his meeting with his father, but he hadn’t yet. It was starting to stress her out. She had no idea what Gabriel Agreste did to him. She refused to have faith in him - she wasn’t as optimistic as Adrien was nowadays.

Being Ladybug did that to her.

Being in that class did that to her. Marinette tried to not hold grudges, but Gabriel was something else.

“Are you alright, Dupain-Cheng?” 

Her eyes landed on Damian, letting out a tired sigh, “Yeah. Sorry. What were we doing again?”

Damian stretched as he stood up, “We can take a break. Do you want to do something?”  
Marinette would rather get the project done, but she could tell Damian was never going to let them take a break again if she didn’t take this chance. Marinette let her eyes scan her room before landing on her television where an untouched set of controllers sat. She hadn’t played Mecha Strike III and she missed it.

“Do you play video games?” Marinette asked. 

Damian snorted, “Not often. My brothers are too easy to beat.”  
Marinette found herself grinning internally, Adrien fleeing from her mind. “Then beating me should be easy! C’mon, I’ve been deprived from my video games.”  
Damian watched as Marinette stood up from her spot and sauntered over to the controllers, wagging one at him, “Have you ever played Ultimate Mecha Strike?”

“No.”  
“Eh, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

Damian followed her to the couch and watched as she turned on the television, pixels suddenly filling the screen. Marinette handed him the controller and started a game while explaining the rules really quickly. He watched as she picked a character that looked like a robotic ladybug - Marinette has never been really subtle - and chose a white horse appearing character for himself.

The game started and he watched as Marinette straightened her back, calmly placing the controller on her leg and tapped the buttons with ease. Damian tried to counteract everything, but she seemed to know his moves before he did them. Marinette gave him a weak smile when the game flashed with her character winning and held out her hand, “I’m impressed, nobody has been able to get that far on their first try with me. Do you want to do a team match?”

“Are you kidding?”

“What?” Marinette raised a brow.  
“You basically crushed me in three minutes.”

“To be honest,” Marinette frowned, not wanting to appear arrogant, “most don’t last two. This game is kinda my thing.”  
Damian exhaled, finding himself annoyed with the fact that she won, “We’ll do one team match and then finish the research section of our project, got it?”

Marinette raised her hands, “Okay, okay. We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”  
“Don’t test me.”  
A random duo appeared on screen and Marinette quickly attacked one character, flinging them over her head. Damian attacked another, using his character’s physical strength and technical skills he developed as a vigilante to fight the other. He felt Marinette shift next to him and his eyes fell on her, watching her quietly. Tapping away at his controller still, he studied her eyes as they flicked across the screen, so very bright. He hadn’t seen Marinette quite like this before, sort of like when she was teasing him earlier about the croissants. Her eyes were wide with amusement but his gaze landed on her lips. They were curling up into the most sincere smile he had seen her give yet.

Damian felt something twist in his stomach, but he ignored it, and refocused on the game. They both defeated the other team within minutes and Marinette gave a breathy laugh, holding out her fist.

Her laugh.

He stared at her fist offering and watched as the light in her eyes faded as she said,  _ “Bien joue.” _

“Oh sorry,” she mumbled, “I forgot you’re not big on the whole touching thing.”

Damian froze at this, knowing that although this was very obvious about him, not many actually respected it.

_What was going on with him?_ _  
_ “Right. Anyways. We should probably focus on the project,” Damian concluded.

Marinette nodded, putting the controllers up.

They both ended back at her counter top, scrolling through article after article before Damian concluded he had to leave. Gathering his things up, he took one last paralyzing glance at Marinette. Her eyes were soft but scattering once again. He could tell she was distracted, but pushed off her own emotions to continue working.

“We need to finish this again. I’m free Wednesday. What’s your schedule.”

“I’m free as of right now for any time really. I’m looking into clubs but that’s it. Wednesday will work,” Marinette brushed some of her hair behind her ear, tightening her ponytail. “Do you want croissants again?”  
Damian bit down his smile, “Surprise me.”

“Heh, Maman taught me well. Food wins over everyone.”

“Bye Marinette.”

Marinette waved, watching Damian exit her apartment,  _ “Au revoir.” _

It didn’t take long for Damian to arrive home. Alfred had come to pick him up and it was supposed to be dinner time at the Waynes. Off-handly, Damian made his way up to his room, staring at the untouched walls with rampant thoughts running through his mind. Bruce decided to send Dick upstairs to get Damian down for dinner.

“Damian, dinner is ready. Get your ass up.”

“Language,” Damian snorted back.

Dick rolled his eyes, leaning against the door frame, “How was working on the project with Miss Secretive?”

Damian flicked his eyes over to Dick’s spot, “I’m not going to research her anymore. It was a bit invasive.”

This made Dick straighten his posture, “What the hell? How did she change your mind?”

“She’s… she’s still real while somehow being fake. There’s still some part of her in there, under her masks. I don’t think it’s my place to venture there without her permission.”

Dick gave Damian an arrogant smile, but Damian glared darkly, “If you say ‘I told you so’ I will crush your windpipe and gouge your eyes out with my katana. I dare you to, Richard.”

“Yeah, yeah, the usual ‘I’ll kill you if you attack my fragile ego’. Anyways, I just wanted to say -”

_ “Richard.” _

“ - that despite your overwhelming need to involve yourself in Marinette’s past, I understood why you were doing it. I think you are so curious because you see a lot of yourself in her. You two are very similar.”  
Damian squinted his eyes then threw his head back with an agonizing laugh. “Me and Dupain-Cheng? Tch, you really think I have something in common with her.”

“More than you think,” Dick said, giving Damian a smirk, “Oh and also. I told you so.”  
He just barely missed the random knife Damian threw at him.

_ August 18th, 8:45 p.m. _

“Marinette, what’s going on?”

Marinette was at her laptop, just having finished her homework and worked on a design for the past half hour. Kaalki was leaning towards Marinette who was slumped over. Her eyes were still edging toward her phone, before groaning aloud. “Adrien still hasn’t called me which means I’m going to have to call him.”  
Her fingers numbly found her phone and tapped the screen, listening to the echoing ring. 

“Ladybug?” Adrien’s voice sounded exhausted, and frankly, upset.

“Chaton? Is everything okay? Did Hawk Moth do something to you? I knew you - “

“Mari, calm down. I’m fine.” Adrien exhaled, “He isn’t Hawk Moth. He’s my father. I wish you could refrain from calling him that.”

Marinette felt her heart fall into her chest, anxiety boiling over. She squeezed her eyes shut, “You sound tired. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you so late in Paris. Two in the morning. Almost three. And yet, they both knew she wasn’t apologizing about that.

“Marinette.”

“We can talk again in the morning.  _ Bonne soir, mon chaton.” _

“Marinette, I -”

“Adrien, stop worrying about me. I’m fine,” Marinette scolded, pulling the phone away from her ear. She hung up the phone before Adrien could say anything more and flopped onto her stomach. Tikki floated towards Marinette, landing beside her. 

“Marinette, maybe you should allow some people to worry about you. You’re going through hard times too.”

Marinette propped herself onto her arms, “Tikki, I’m fine. I’m just a little bit stressed, but its all things I put on myself.”

“You didn’t choose any of this!” It was becoming apparent to Tikki that Master Fu had given Marinette the miraculous because she didn’t want the power. Just like he did. She could handle it better. That didn’t mean she could handle the pressure.

“Tikki,” Marinette twisted herself towards the kwami, “I chose to save Hawk Moth and Adrien.”

The battle had ended with Hawk Moth on the brink of death and Adrien’s corpse slung over the side of a building with the protection of the miraculous gone. Ladybug hadn’t saved him from his father’s wrath then, and she didn’t later. She merged the two miraculous and saved them both so she wouldn’t feel guilt towards Adrien who wanted his father alive. She was reckless and gave back life to an abusive father. 

She did that. 

She was weak and gave in because she was so afraid of losing Adrien too. That she couldn’t do what was right for him.

And now she would have to kill someone for it. To keep the balance she disturbed. 

“I’m going to bed. Goodnight Tikki. Goodnight Kaalki.”

That night she dreamed of gold vines enclosing around her throat and one hooded man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My short break is now over and you can expect updates once again. We're getting closer to the good parts, closer to more main events! Next chapter we might get a cameo from a very special Miraculous character who I really like. ;) Guess who?


	9. The Umbrella

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, lot's of good guesses, but let this chapter title be a hint- and no it's not Adrien, but he is in here! He'll eventually meet Damian, but that's for another time. ;)

_ August 20th, 6:43 a.m. _

The sky was smoke with rain pouring down on Marinette as she walked along to school. Huddled under a familiar black umbrella - yes, it was Adrien’s - her eyes stayed focused on what was ahead of her. The streets of Gotham felt unusually empty with the rain pestering down on pedestrians. Marinette would take the bus or something, but she actually liked the rain for the most part. It was quiet and somehow calming to her.

It was raining when she first really met Adrien. Maybe that’s why it stayed closer to her heart. She could still see him under the rain, shielding himself yet being open to her. It struck Marinette into a frenzy about wanting to be closer to him. She had a thing for honesty.

Funny how that was the thing she didn’t like about Damian. He was too blunt and honest about  _ everything.  _ Yet both him and Adrien were mysteries while being honest. She couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t curious about Damian.

A flash of white and blue flicked past her, dragging her out of her thoughts so suddenly she jumped slightly. Marinette recognized that figure, her heart pounding with anxiety as she diverted from her path to school.  _ Bunnix? _

Her feet pounded and splashed into puddles as she followed the disappearing figure. She was being led somewhere more private. Trusting her close partner, she traveled up a fire escape of an abandoned building and realized they were finally on a roof somewhere.

“Mini-bug, come under my umbrella. Nobody should be able to hear our conversation just in case.”  
Marinette nodded, closing her own umbrella and feeling the rain hit her shoulders. Stepping under the iconic umbrella, she stared up at Bunnix, “Is everything fine in Paris?”

Bunnix sighed, her eyes seeping into Marinette’s blue ones. She felt like she wasn’t going to like the reply. “No. It’s not about Paris. It’s about something upcoming in the future.”

Marinette brushed some wet strands of her hair behind her ear. “Is it bad?”

“Yes. I have come here to give you some advice.”

_ “Advice?”  _ Marinette pressed, furrowing her brows. Something awful was about to happen but instead of getting directions and taking action, she would be getting  _ advice?  _

“Advice,” Bunnix confirmed, staring out into the Gotham skyline. “You know I would be watching over your stay in Gotham because it is very dangerous and I will need to guide you sometimes. This isn’t exactly about Gotham, because it’s about your personal problems. I - I have re-watched most of your time as Ladybug now, to fully understand your journey. Mini-bug, you keep on blocking anyone from getting close to you because you’re scared.”

“No,” Marinette steadied herself, “I’m making sure nobody… nobody eh, nobody figures out I’m Ladybug and gets upset when I don’t have the time for them.”

“Marinette.”

“I lost everybody. Even my parents. You can’t just expect - expect me to -”

“I don’t. You don’t need to forgive anyone Mini-bug. I’m just telling you to be more open to people here in Gotham,” Bunnix peered back down at the small hero. “Something really bad is going to happen to you, and things are already bad enough.”

“I’m fine right now. Things aren’t perfect, but I’m making due.”

“Mini-bug, you can lie to yourself and Adrien, but I’m capable of seeing past that. Don’t bother. I’m telling you that you’re not fine. It’s about to get a lot worse and all I’m going to say is this: when it happens, trust your instinct. Everyday after that event, if you trust your instinct, you will get to where you need to be.”

“Bunnix, I have a question,” Marinette whispered.

“Yes?”  
“Is Adrien okay?”

“He will be.” 

“One more question actually. I understand that I have to… take Scarecrow’s life to repair the lives I brought back for Gabriel and Adrien. But normally the balance is restored immediately right?”

“Not necessarily. Mari, Master Fu always said the miraculous works in mysterious ways. For whatever reason, it wants you to see what happens when you mess with the balance and it also wants you to come here. I don’t know if I would I say I approve of this, but it’s not my place. It’s the miraculous’.”

Marinette nodded, blinking a little too rapidly. Shaking her head, she reopened her umbrella and waved a goodbye to Bunnix. Bunnix created a portal and stepped through the blinding light and that was that.

She eased herself back down the fire escape, her heart still running a marathon in her chest. Her head started to pound as she soon felt warmth coat her body. Pressing her temple to a piece of metal, she had to readjust herself to everything once again. Tikki rapidly left her bag and focused on the guardian, “C’mon Marinette, you have to get to class. You shouldn’t be late.”

Marinette waved her away with a groan, “I don’t ever get a break, do I?”

“You never let yourself have one. You’re always stressed and never let yourself relax.”

Marinette glared, “It’s not my fault that when I finally got settled in Gotham, the miraculous went haywire and wanted to attack a particular villain!”

“Mari, what were you planning on doing by the end of this week?”

“I was planning on transforming into Ladybug so I can become more ready for when we get a new Hawk Moth.”

“What will activating a miraculous let everyone know?”

Her eyes strayed to the sight of Gotham, lingering on the skyscrapers. “It will let everyone know where the miraculous are. Including the future Hawk Moth. So what do I do? I was planning on changing the costume but the power would still work the same and the only way for me to properly get some clearance in Gotham is if I’m a recognizable superhero.”

“What if you weren’t using a miraculous to get your powers. What if you proved yourself to Batman and got clearance the hard way. I know you want to trust the vigilantes of Gotham but don’t do it so quickly. Instead of saying your Ladybug, maybe become another superhero?”

Marinette’s feet pounded down the fire escape, her eyes focused on the black metal beneath her shoes. “So do you want me to make my own costume and become a superhero without any powers?”

“No. What I’m thinking is that you become a meta.”  
_“What?_ Tikki this is ridiculous, plus we came to Gotham so I could train as Ladybug and have a dark enough place to counteract that.”  
“Not actually a metahuman. Just pretend to be one. Plus, training with a miraculous trains you at least on the parts without the powers. We can work on your intuitive skills elsewhere, perhaps if the Riddler gives you a visit.”

“Will it still counteract the darkness of Gotham?”

“That won’t matter because you won’t be Ladybug. I know we came here so you could train as Ladybug but I’m starting to believe that your purpose here isn’t to do that. That maybe there’s something else here you need and you also need to be here to restore balance of your last battle issues. I think that despite your original intentions for being in Gotham, that’s not why we're here.”

“You think I came here to kill Scarecrow?”

“That may be a partial reason. Maybe you can heal here too. The revival of the Agrestes was not the only issue you had Marinette. You are depressed, anxious and not coping as well as you would like to say. Not that I blame you but -”  
“Not you too Tikki! I’m fine!”

“If you were, you wouldn’t be saying that every five seconds. C’mon Marinette, let's just get you to class before people start to stare at you speaking to yourself.”

Marinette flushed as she realized she was just a block away from Gotham Academy and speaking to a bag. Also, she was speaking of serious business out in the open. Face palming, she tucked herself behind her umbrella and reached the courtyard of the school. 

She realized how everyone was already heading to class and Marinette pouted, frustrated with herself. She was doing so well and today she would just barely make it to class on time.

Falling into her seat, she could feel Damian shift and let out a little, “Tch.”

“Oh shut up,” Marinette hissed, letting out a frustrated sigh. Covering her eyes with her fists, Marinette tried to gather her thoughts. She and Tikki still had so much to discuss, like what her plan actually was. She assumed pretending to be metahuman meant to use a miraculous and claiming it wasn’t from a piece of jewelry. Maybe working with Batman would help her out with her fighting skills in non-magical situations. If he was willing to work with her, that is. She heard that he hated Superman because he was a metahuman.

Also which miraculous was so unknown that she could use it to fight in Gotham? Which would be the most useful? Should she hunt down a missing miraculous to use too? She had started her search for those but it was off and on.

“If you keep sighing, I’m going to choke you,” Damian said under his breath.

“What part of shut up did you not comprehend?”

“Like I’d listen to you, Dupain-Cheng.”

It was then that Marinette realized one more thing. Yesterday, Damian had called her Marinette for the first time instead of Dupain-Cheng. Clearly, she was back to square one.

“Do you have something to share with the class, Miss Dupain-Cheng? You came in seconds before the bell rang and now you’re not paying attention. Perhaps you can answer the question on the board?”

Marinette could feel Damian’s smirk, and she knew the teacher would never bother  _ the  _ Damian Wayne. Oh how she wished to slap him. 

“Your question is a prompt right? What makes someone good or evil?” Marinette confirmed with a tilt of her head.

The teacher nodded, making sure Marinette continued.

She bit her lip as she thought about various people in her life that she thought were good and weren’t so much and others she thought were evil and proved to be good. “I can’t say something for everyone, but I think it’s all based on perspective. Half of the people who do extreme crimes are insane and the other half are desperate. Just because someone seems bad doesn’t mean they are bad. Eh, the clothes do not make the man?”  
“What?” her teacher tilted her head.

Marinette sighed,  _ “L’habite ne fait pas le moine.  _ It’s a French phrase. I think there’s an English version of it.”

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover?” Damian supplied with a head nod.

“Yes! That’s the one. And just because someone seems good doesn’t make them sincere. There is no good or evil, which seems pretty clear nowadays. People just do what they think is right, even if it ends up being wrong for someone else. We as a community decide what is good or evil and while it’s not always fair or equal, it’s what matters to this topic. It’s also up to us as individuals to know what we stand and won’t stand.”

“Very good, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Now please focus on the lesson.”  
Marinette sighed and saw Damian give her look in her peripheral. She waved him away and for the rest of the period, attempted to focus on the lesson.

By the end of her final class before lunch, the same two people who approached her on her first day were back at her seat, giving her bright grins. 

“Marinette, I don’t think we introduced ourselves the last time we met,” the girl with red hair stated, her freckled cheeks blushing with the smile. 

“I’m Henry and this is my friend Lily,” the boy supplied.

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you,” Marinette gave in, a fake smile gracing her face once more. 

“We were thinking that you could join us for lunch.”

“I’d love to,” Marinette said, trying to follow Bunnix’s advice. However, in that moment, her phone buzzed and sang out a familiar ring tone. “Actually, I take that back. Is it okay if I join later, this call is sort of important. It’s someone from my family back in France. They’ve been in a bad state.”

Marinette always gave too much information when she was lying but she was progressively getting better. Plus, family is more understandable than huge-crush-and-superhero-partner-turned-best-friend-with-serious-issues. 

“Yeah, of course. Take it.”

Marinette nodded appreciatively and walked off, clutching her phone anxiously. She watched as the ringing stopped and frowned, confused. 

Adrien was debating whether he should tell her something or not.

She missed the Cat Noir she once had. The one who told her his feelings without filter. He still did, but it was far more hesitant. She wasn’t sure why, but after the final battle, they were closer than ever but felt more far apart. 

She dialed him up herself, “Adrien?”

She ended up in a stairwell again, leaning up against the brick wall surrounding the stairs.

“Mari, hey. I eh, just wanted to let you know…”  
_Adrien._

“That I, eh, I am going to see my father again. Soon.”

“Adrien. You didn’t tie up loose ends? What makes you think that this time is any different?”

“I feel it?”

Yes. This is why Marinette was Ladybug and Adrien was Cat Noir. 

“Like instinct?”

“No, like emotionally.”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” Marinette felt something burn at the back of her eyes.

She hated to say this, but Adrien somehow makes her more stressed out. 

“So are you going to be Ladybug soon?” Adrien asked quietly.

“Actually, Tikki had an idea. I think I’m going to use a minor one to use.”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain later, I’m still at school. I also need to figure some things out myself… but I’ll let you know. I’ve gotta go. Bye Adrien.”  
“Bye Marinette.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do have a plan with Marinette and the Scarecrow and the balance, but it's a main plot line and won't be explicitly explained for a couple more chapters, so I do hope it's not confusing you more than it should be. Also, we may finally get some Ladybug and Robin action but it's under different terms - Marinette is not Ladybug, she's someone else and she's also pretending to be a meta. I think it's a bit of a fresh idea, but I hope you guys like it. :)


	10. The Backstory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We have a couple more conversations between our duo and we see Damian blush :)

_ August 21st, 2:20 p.m. _

“Damian, hey,” Marinette called out, finally walking with his stride. “Are you ready to head to my house?”  
Damian nodded quietly, and Marinette shifted her bag onto her shoulder. “I made a french specialty for you, by the way. But you still have not given me any food preferences. Do you have any allergies?”

“No.”

“Great! Oh, and I did some extra research for the project, which you can look through if you want.”

Damian tilted his head at her, her eyes latching onto his. “Why would I do that?”  
Marinette rolled her eyes, “I’m not clueless Damian, I am also a control freak. I can identify another one from a mile away. You’re going to do it either way, might as well say that I approve of this.”  
Damian paused for a second, before shaking his head, “I appreciate the gesture.”

“No problem.”

The walk was short leading up to Marinette’s house, but they had a lot of work to do anyways.

Marinette opened up the front door and walked up the steps leading to her apartment. Pulling out a key, she quickly unlocked her door and stepped inside.

“Okay, so I was thinking that we would begin the rough draft of our project today now that we have the research. How long can you stay?”

Damian flicked his eyes to his watch, thinking about his patrol. Now, here’s one thing you should know about Damian Wayne.  _ He hated to miss patrol.  _ So much so, that his father would use it as punishment. It was a way to release his energy, rage and well, he also was like Marinette said: a control freak. The best way to be in control is to be an impacting factor. So he never missed a patrol if he had the option to.

But right then and there, instead of wanting to go on patrol, Damian wanted to stay at Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s house.

“How long would you prefer?”

“I would say at latest, eight? I can get us dinner of course, but if you have plans, we can just add an extra date onto it. I mean, we have plenty of time.”  
“I can do eight, I just have to call Alfred.”

“Ooh,” Marinette’s eyes lit up at the mention of Alfred, “I like speaking with him. I hope I have the opportunity to do so again.”

Damian tried to logic out his reasoning for wanting to stay at Marinette’s house. One, Marinette and he had a project to do and it would just be best if they did it now. Also, he would have more time to make changes to anything he didn’t like. He didn’t like her or anything, she was actually quite frustrating. Even though she was mostly quiet and out of the way, there were a couple of occasions where she just tossed herself into bad situations.

Like how she had slammed him into the floor during the Scarecrow attack. She was incredibly reckless and became a liability. Or when she forced him to eat a croissant. Or when she sighed all class yesterday for an unknown reason - which he was really wanting to know, but had to keep to his promise. Or how she gave mostly fake smiles, except for that one time when she grinned while they were playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Or when she fell out of her seat when they first met - which was actually pretty funny now that he thinks back to it. 

He was beginning to think that maybe she wasn’t so bad though. She was the most bearable person he had met in a while and he was deprived of logical conversations seeing as Dick was the brother he was having the most conversations with recently.

Pulling out his phone, he dialed up Alfred. “Hello Alfred, I was planning on missing dinner and any  _ activities  _ afterwards so I can get a bit of my project done with Miss Dupain-Cheng. Please alert father.”

Marinette giggled, and Damian turned towards her, his heart beat racing. Finishing off his conversation with Alfred, he gave her a look.

“Sorry Damian, it was just weird to hear you call me  _ Miss Dupain-Cheng.  _ It was pretty adorable.”

His face burned, “I couldn’t think of anything better to call you.”

“Here, let’s sound something out. Ma-”

“Ma-”

“Rin,” Marinette continued.

“Rin-”

“Nette.”

“I don’t call anyone by their first names.”

“That’s not true. You call Alfred by his first name. And you’ve called me Marinette once before. If you’re not going to call me by my first name, you need a nickname for me or something. Most of my friends call me Mari.”

“Too bad we’re just acquaintances.”

Marinette sighed, thinking back to the rain and the umbrellas of yesterday. “Then we can be friends.”

“Dupain-Cheng -”

“- No, Damian. I sincerely want to be friends with you. There’s no pressure or expectations to that word, just thinking that maybe we could hang out once or twice outside of school without the guise of a project or eat lunch together a couple of times.”

Damian felt heat pour into his cheeks once again - what was happening to him?

“Fine, but this is unofficial for now.”

Marinette held out her hand, “Un-offical friends.”

He shook it, “Un-offical friends.”

Marinette chuckled, “Okay my unofficial buddy, let’s get the draft done for our project.”

They headed back to her counter where a platter of french pastries were waiting. Marinette grinned, as Damian stared at the marble design of  _ mille-feuilles.  _ “They’re very impressive. Good job… Marinette.”

“Thanks. Go on, try one!”

They spent their time eating french pastries - oh the amount of extra push ups they would both have to do - and working on their project. Time quickly passed and the two mostly stayed quiet except for a couple of adjustments for the project and a couple of lazy jokes (mostly from Marinette, who still sort of felt awkward in her own way).

Marinette's phone started to ring and Damian watched her carefully look down at the number and sigh softly. Giving Damian a soft smile, Marinette left the living room and went out onto her balcony. He studied her expressions and before she closed the door, he heard her say, “Adrien.”

Jason, his oh-so wonderful, adopted brother, had mentioned his thoughts on the whole Adrien topic. He proclaimed that it sounded as if Marinette had some feelings for Adrien. Damian hated to admit it, but Jason might be right on this one. She always was out the door to accept his call, no matter what time. It was beginning to be a natural thing that came along with Marinette.

Sighing to himself, he turned towards her computer and scanned over her own documents of research for the project. He ended up on her google and typed in a “G” to check one of her sources credibility, but his eyes caught on one of the search suggestions. 

_ Gotham’s villain Scarecrow background. _

He thought back once more to the day she had been attacked by Scarecrow. It must’ve piqued her curiosity. Maybe she was now a bit more scared and a little less reckless. There was always one hole in the events of that night. What made Scarecrow drop Marinette?

Nobody had hit him. Marinette didn’t look strong enough to get out of his grip around her tiny neck. He was surprised her neck didn’t snap.

He hated the thought of her feeling unsafe. Finishing his search, he heard her footsteps come back into the room.

“Sorry, that was Adrien.”

“I could tell. You always answer his calls like a puppy.”

“Like a puppy?” Marinette raised a brow. “Look, Adrien’s going through some hard times. I don’t answer his calls like a puppy.”

“Alright.”

_ “Alright?  _ Ugh, whatever. Anyways, I was thinking we could order something for dinner, I haven’t really done that yet.”

“Okay, just please get some sort of green.”

“M’kay. Did you check my research to your preferences?”

“Yes,” Damian said quietly. “It was fine.”

“I’m starting to take kinda compliments as full compliments when they come from you,” Marinette commented quietly, nudging his shoulder with her own so he’d scoot over. 

Damian felt his cheeks heat up at the contact but hid it beneath his computer screen. He fixated his gaze on Marinette, watching her eyes squint at the computer, her fingers clicking away at the keyboard.

“Marinette, how did you meet Agreste?”

Marinette raised a brow, tilting her head at him, “Are we doing backstory right now?”

“More or less.”

“I’ll answer your question if you answer one of mine. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Marinette propped her head onto her fists and exhaled slowly before starting, “Adrien was supposed to join my school at the beginning of our fourth year - or uh, that’s not right. Seventh grade? No, eighth - anyways, he missed the first day of school. His father didn’t want him to go to public school for various controlling parent reasons, I guess. But somehow he convinced him and managed to come on the second day. After hearing a girl named Chloé talk about how great he was, I was sure I wasn’t going to like him, because I didn’t like her.

“And, I really didn’t. When I walked in, he planted a piece of gum on my seat because Chloé told him to. I got angry of course, and soon realized that he was the son of my favorite fashion designer. Somehow, this made me like him so much less. My friend Alya and I refrained from being his friend until the end of the day came.

“It was pouring rain outside, and I had no umbrella. Adrien came up to me after school and he opened up to me and told me that he was trying to take the gum off my seat, not put it on there. I could feel the sincerity in his eyes, and I don’t really know how to explain it, but I knew that him and I had a connection. He gave me his umbrella and I forgot how to speak.”

Damian furrowed his brows, “You had affections for Agreste?”

Marinette sighed, picking at her fingernails, “You could call it that. I wouldn’t though. My life had changed  _ a lot _ when I met Adrien and so I wanted to latch onto something normal. Having a crush was a way of coping but it became obsessive when my life was chaotic. To this day, I don’t understand why people enabled me to act like that, but those feelings are gone and now I’m just a bit embarrassed about it. I guess it’s a usual middle school girl thing, eh, that’s what I tell myself anyways.”

“I can tell you miss him a lot.”

“Yeah, he’s like a brother to me.”

“Did you…” Damian paused, knowing he was probably crossing a line, “ever tell him about your affections.”

“Yeah,” Marinette snickered, “we had a good laugh about it, but I spared him most of the details about it. I don’t like to worry Adrien.”

“He seems to worry you a lot.”

“Adrien has a lot more problems than I do,” Marinette turned towards her computer, ignoring Damian’s staring.

“Doesn’t mean your problems mean any less.”

Marinette waved him off, “Anyways, I’m thinking about getting us wraps since you want something green. Steak or chicken?”

“I’m a vegetarian.”

“See, this is something you could’ve told me when I asked about your allergies and whatnot. I could’ve made you a french pastry that incorporated meat like a  _ crêpe  _ or something of that sort,” Marinette scolded with narrowed eyes.

“And I would’ve just refused.”

“Whatever. What do you want on it?”

Damian decided he would mention the change of topic and just decided to help Marinette pick out what to go on his wrap. Once they had settled the order, they continued to work on their rough draft in easy silence.

The food soon came and Marinette darted downstairs to get the bags and pay. Shuffling back up stairs, she pushed on her door and found Damian staring at her with a raised brow.

“I was hungry.”

“You didn’t have to dash out the door.”

“You’re judgmental, sir. I’m not surprised you’re a vegetarian.”  
Damian furrowed his brows with a concerned face, “What does me being judgmental have to do with me being a vegetarian?”

“It doesn’t. I just wanted to offend you.”

Damian scowled and joined Marinette on the floor in front of her television, “Do we have to eat on the floor.”

Marinette shrugged, “We could eat at the counter, but I’m a lazy teenager living by myself. Who’s going to judge me other than you. Plus I want to beat you at Ultimate Mecha Strike III again.”

Damian rolled his eyes and took his wrap as Marinette leaned back against her couch. She let out a subtle yawn, her eyelids fluttering.

“It’s not that late. Why are you so tired?”

“My sleep schedule has been crap for years. I don’t sleep much anymore. You should go into my kitchen and open the first cabinet on the left. It should say everything you need to know.”

Damian shrugged and got up before opening the cabinet. The entire cabinet was stuffed with forms of coffee, a Keurig - which he had no idea where she got that from - and other forms of energizing drinks. Even Red Bull lined the cabinets.

“Are you fine?”

“I’m alive, for the most part.”

Damian settled back down in the spot next to Marinette and realized she had already pulled up the game. She handed him a controller and they both picked the same characters as last time. Marinette quickly ground pounded him in the first seconds before raising her character’s leg to give him a high kick. However, Damian blocked her moves and countered them as they both fell into intense focus.

“Oh my good - you’re about to win,” Marinette said breathlessly, as she tapped her controller buttons with a rhythm. However, she figured out Damian’s tactic and quickly defeated him.

Damian sighed as Marinette turned towards him with wide eyes, “Oh my goodness! You almost won! Did you practice or something?”

Damian was not going to admit he found the game and played it so he relaxed his expression and shrugged, “No.”

Marinette ran a hand through her ponytail before chuckling quietly, “Okay then. I’m going to have to force you to play against me more often.”

“You’re fairly creative, I’ll give you that. You probably got it from being a baker’s daughter though.”

Marinette tensed, her brows furrowing, “How did you know about my parent’s  _ boulangerie et pâtisserie?  _ I never told you that?”

“No, I’m pretty sure you did.”

“No, I didn’t,” Marinette countered, facing him with a frown on her face, “Did you read my file? Did you research me?”

“What? No.”

“Look,” Marinette grounded out, “Just because your father gave me a scholarship does not mean you can snoop around in my file. That’s an invasion of privacy. Why don’t you just let yourself figure -”

Her shoulders slumped forward, and Marinette continued, “I’m sorry. I get it now.”

Damian was confused, “Why are  _ you  _ apologizing to  _ me?” _

“I get why you did it,” Marinette said softly, “You and I both are control freaks, remember? We like to know everything about everyone. Sometimes I do it too. Just, don’t do it anymore okay? Before you dig up something you can’t rebury.”

Damian paused, his heart slowing, “I apologize. I shouldn’t have looked at your file. Just in case you thought it, no, my father did not give me permission to. I usually don’t do what he says.”

“Oh? Are you a rebel child?” Marinette changed topics once again.

Damian grinned, and Marinette blinked at the pretty expression on his face, “Something like that.”

“Okay then, here’s my question: what’s the most rebellious thing you’ve done, other than sneak into my file?”

Marinette continued to eat her wrap as Damian thought it over. Snapping his fingers, he turned to Marinette, “My house has a multitude of security measures, as I’m sure you’re aware. When I was pretty young, I decided to sneak out when my older brother was watching me. I was tired of staying inside, away from the press, and was excited to be on my own. I guess you could say I was a superhero as I helped save someone in an alley before finding out how much trouble I was in.”

“Wow, you did all of that? Man, you sounded awesome when you were younger. What happened?”

Damian rolled his eyes, “Did you do anything ‘rebellious’ when you were younger?”

“Me? Rebellious?” Marinette laughed, “I wish. The most I ever did was stay out late on my balcony. I was a pure and innocent being.”

“Yeah, I clearly believe that.”

“Sure you do.”

Marinette let out another yawn, dusted off her hands. She got up and grabbed their laptops and work before returning to her spot. She handed him his computer and they both continued to work on the project. Damian was so focused, that an hour later, he didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until her body slumped forward. Her knee brushed his as Marinette stayed in her own dreams.

Damian checked the time and realized he needed to go soon, but after he packed up everything, it felt weird to leave her there. Dumping his things by the door, he headed back over and crouched down by her. Pressing his hand gently to the center of her back and scooping his hands under her lower legs, he lifted her up. He carefully placed her down on her couch and cleaned up the area.

Then he left her to her sleep, not noticing the tremors that shook through her body. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being pretty long and my google doc with all of the chapters is starting to get super slow when I scroll through it. I'm not sure whether I should be frustrated or proud?  
> Another thing, this was really subtle, but Damian couldn't do the 16th of August because of his brother's birthday. That was from a couple chapters back though. Do you guys even remember that?  
> :)


	11. The Judgment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally get a bit more action in our story but this is really just to move the plot along before we have some half-filler-half-not chapters. This are about to get really real in a hot minute. (Let's all pray for Mari, my poor baby).

_ August 24th, 8:09 p.m. _

“C’mon, all you have to do is admit it was a date,” Dick Grayson commented, covered once again in his Nightwing attire.

Robin glared, preferring to look out at the skyline, “I will murder you. You seem to forget that I’m a trained assassin.”

“Hmm, really?”

Robin shook his head in annoyance.

“You  _ never  _ skip out on patrols, and I know I’ve been bothering you about it, but do you seriously like Marinette?”

“I barely tolerate her existence. I just decided to go ahead and get most of the project done on Wednesday so I won’t have to deal with her for an extra day.”

“Got it. So you’re saying you didn’t enjoy your time with a highly intelligent, really pretty french girl who’s about an entire year younger than you and single?”

“Not my type,” Robin stated firmly.

Nightwing pinched the bridge of his nose, “You don’t have a type. You hate everyone, but I know you at least like her somewhat.”

“Hate to interrupt,” Oracle commented through their earpieces, “But we’ve got a problem.”

She gave them the coordinates and they both jumped from roof to roof until they landed in the spot. Nightwing and Robin peered down from the rooftop, analyzing the situation quickly. Two men were tied up in one corner with a hefty pile of drugs and dirty money safely tucked behind two other criminals with effective guns. It looked like a deal got cut off. Since two were already tied up, all they had to do was get the extra two tied up and remove their weapons. Should be easy.

However, a new figure sauntered in, and they both squinted their eyes at it. A girl with dark hair and a white outfit had entered and she seemed unrelated to the drug trade. Not wasting any time, the girl lunged forward, grabbed one man’s arm. She used a makeshift shield against the other man for a split second before kneeing his side and kicking his jaw until he hit the ground and the gun slid across the concrete. The other man fired a shot at her but it was clearly a warning one.

Nightwing and Robin dropped into the alley way and watched as the girl took on the other guy with ease, flinging him into a whole different corner. Nightwing didn’t pay too much attention to her as she leaned up against a wall, and instead tied up the two criminals. Robin, however, focused all of his attention on her.

“Who the hell are you?”

The girl sighed, pouting slightly, “I don’t even get a thank you?”  
“You did nothing that we couldn’t handle,” Robin stated.

She brushed a couple of strands of her hair out of her face, “Fair enough. I’m new.”

Robin tried to get a read on her. She seemed fairly young, either fourteen or early twenties, but he couldn’t be sure for some reason. Her eyes were bright and unique but so very unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. Her voice hinted at french, but the more he thought about her, the more his head swam. Why couldn’t he think properly about her?

“Your name?”

“Judgment.”

Nightwing appeared once again, studying her. “Judgment? What’s the reasoning behind that?”

“It’s a play on words. Also justice is about how other’s judge you,” Judgment stated, fiddling with a delicate boomerang. 

Judgment’s outfit consisted of a white bodysuit, made out of an unknown material and had a fair bit of armor aspects to it. Brown gloves that were reminiscent of leather - but Robin could clearly tell weren’t -were finger-less gloves. A v-shaped belt of the same material cut her white outfit in half. She was wearing a form of combat boots made from the same material but they appeared more flexible and less bulky. Her hair was tied up in a top bun and a plain white masked covered her identity. The most creative part of her outfit was the faux-leather jacket that was hugging her body like the suit, but clearly was a separate part. It had a horse shoe pin on the pocket. 

However, his eyes caught sight of a pair of sunglasses. They were cat-eye with the frame made from what looked like gold and settled on the top of her head. 

“What’s with the sunglasses? It’s dark outside,” he commented.

“I’m not wearing them, am I?” Judgment said, “Don’t worry about the details. I have a question for Batman, if you’ll let me speak with him.”

Nightwing shrugged, “Okay.”

_ “Okay?”  _ Robin grounded out, “You’re just going to lead a random stranger to Batman?”

“She’s outnumbered and Batman can take her. I have a question though. Why are you a vigilante? What skills do you even offer other than basic attacks.”

Judgment narrowed her eyes at the basic attacks, but sighed, “Look, I know you aren’t fond of eh,  _ metas.  _ But, I have the skills and plenty of weaknesses. I am not overpowered or anything, just useful. I’m relatively immune to most things, like knives and punches, but bullets and other newer, unique forms of attacks I can defend myself against super well. I also can teleport.”

“You’re mighty trusting for someone who’s a meta,” Robin slyly commented. 

“I have nothing to hide. You can murder me if you want, but I’d rather work with you.”

“Nobody said anything about murder. We can bring you to Batman, but you’re going to have to prove yourself if you want to work with us,” Nightwing said, holding out his hand.

Judgment shook it with a nod. Sliding her boomerang into a side pocket, the set of vigilantes headed back to the roofs. They were surprised when she scaled the side, jumping from window sill to sill and using her boomerang occasionally for extra support.

“I’m not just a meta. I’m trained,” she commented, crossing her arms when they stared at her for too long. “Lead the way, I can keep my own.”

Nightwing shrugged but Robin gave her an extra long look. Nightwing jumped in between the roofs and spoke quietly to Oracle through the comm. Judgment continued to follow, relaxing the feeling of wind against her face.

If you hadn’t already figured it out, Marinette had used a special miraculous that had only been used a couple of times in France. Not only was she fairly familiar with the kwami, Kaalki, but she had already been using it a couple of times. The boomerang was going to take a while to get used to, but her vigilante name came to her with ease. Judgment, in reference to the word for horse in french,  _ jument  _ (the feminine version). 

Catapulting herself off one roof to flip into the air, and land on the next, Marinette rose from her feet before fully admiring the Dark Knight of Gotham.

Offering her hand, “It’s a pleasure.”  
He didn’t grasp her hand, tilting his head. “Nightwing said you have a question.”

Judgment dropped her hand, “Right. I need to stay physically fit and become used to fighting for a future mission of mine. I wanted to offer my services. I can help you out, but it doesn’t need to be anything closer than that. Just helping you defend Gotham for a year or two and then I’ll be off again.”

“You’re a meta right? I’ll agree to this, even though it sounds a bit - unrealistic - but you have to tell us every single detail about your abilities, prove it and spar with one of us. We need to know your level of fighting and trust you’re willing to give to a set of vigilantes.”

“Once again, I have nothing to hide,” she made a side look at Robin. “I just basically want an alliance. A way for you to not attack me if you see me jumping from rooftops and helping people. I can teleport.”

“Go on.”

Raising her hands, she formed a circle softly, neon blue light pouring from her movement. It slipped around her wrist like a bracelet and she pushed it out in front of her, like an echo wave. It floated above them, before the center filled it. The circle on her wrist still remained lit, as another circle appeared forty feet away on the opposing side of the roof. She stepped into it, and was at the other entrance. Batman watched, studying it carefully. A couple more members of the Bat-Family came, dropping onto the roof with a bit of surprise in their eyes.

Judgment made the motion again and with a fair swipe of her hand, the portal shut. 

“I thought you could teleport,” Nightwing asked, “But you can’t just teleport, you can make teleportation portals. Could we cross through them too?”

“Yes. Almost anything could.”

“I’ll be honest, that could be useful,” a new voice said, and Judgment turned to see Red Hood. “Nice jacket by the way.”

Judgment glanced down at her new jacket - which she thankfully got to add to her jacket this time. The skin tight suit from the past three years had started to bother her after a couple of months but she never took the time to fix it. Smiling brightly, she winked at Red Hood, “I like yours more. Just more iconic.”

Robin groaned, “Of course you like the random meta in a leather jacket.”

Judgment gave Robin a once over with a snort, “You’re just mad that you look like a walking -”

“Traffic light,” Robin glared, “Wow. Never heard that one before.”

Judgment chuckled, “At least you know. Who should I spar with?”

Batman sighed, “I’m going to go with Robin because he seems to dislike you the most - not that it’s surprising.”

“Wow, I can’t believe you would trust me like that.”

“Severely injure her and you’ll be sitting out on patrol for a week.”

“He would just spend time with that -”

“Don’t go there right now Nightwing,” Batman scolded.

Judgment quirked an eyebrow, “I know that many call you the Bat-Family and whatnot, but are you guys actually related or something?”

“No.”

Judgment shrugged, “Alright.”

Both she and Robin got into steady fighting stances. He kept his katana on his side, so she did the same with her boomerang.  _ Oh goodness, this is going to be interesting,  _ she thought to herself.

He took the first swing, which she quickly dodged. She recognized his stance and let it imprint itself in her mind. He took another swing at her, but this time it was a kick. Robin was, as she figured out quickly, trained in martial arts. He was elegant and graceful in every attack. A smile almost appeared on her face, but she hid it.

She continued to dodge him, something she had become incredibly good at and took plenty of pointer’s from Paris’ favorite distraction: Cat Noir. While she did this, she took note of his costume and how they cleverly used something to cover up his eyes. He was almost unrecognizable, but she could still tell he was the closest one to her age, and really close at that. He drew his sword finally.

“You know, I have a serious question,” Judgment prodded, jumping up on the door that led up to the rooftop.

Robin tilted his head for a split second before joining her. Giving him a slight smile, “How does your hair just defy gravity like that. I’m not hating it or anything, it just somehow looks like it got there without gel.”

“Natural.”

“Hmm,” Judgment hummed, dodging another swipe, “Martial arts right? Your fighting style is very refined and classic.”

It reminded her faintly of Kagami with fencing. Here’s where Marinette always won. Naturally, Ladybug had a lot of luck in her hands, but one of Marinette’s natural, real talents that made her so good, was adaptation. She could figure out how someone would probably attack or how they’d expect her to attack. When you’re fighting someone like this, you don’t have to play nice or follow any rules. That’s how she fought down Cat Noir who was arguably more trained in fighting than her and Kagami when she was in her superhero suit and they had spars. It was how she won every battle. Through loopholes. 

This time when Robin made a kick at her, she stepped back before finally raising her fists with a smirk. 

“It’s finally about to get good,” Red Hood commented in the background. 

First, she had to play basics on him. She made a couple of lazy swings at him to let him get his guard just slightly down. He dodge every single one with ease, giving her plenty of time to think through her first real attack.

This time, when she swung, instead of aiming for the stomach, she went for the head. Then jumping forward slightly, Judgment grabbed a fist of his hair, making him wince slightly and tried to drag him towards the ground. Stumbling back, Robin and Judgment both took a split second for balance before going back at it. She hadn’t knocked the sword away, but it was a good start to know how to get him. 

Judgment winked, “It is natural.”

Robin analyzed her tactic, but the most she had done was dodge with basic techniques and the one hair grab. His scalp slightly hurt, but he ignored it. Judgment gracefully bounded back down, and finally brought her boomerang from her side. Not something she was familiar with, but she’d figure it out. Flipping it in her hand, she got used to the curves of the weapon. 

Robin jumped down after her, going for her stomach with his blade. Moving backwards, she used the curve of the boomerang to block the attack. Her eyes lit up at an idea before giving him a high kick. He quickly ducked it, using his blade once again. She dodged it but just barely, taking her boomerang between both hands and using it to grab the sword and kick at Robin’s stomach. 

He didn’t move very much. The blade slipped from beneath her grasp and she sighed internally. Giving him another kick to the stomach she watched him hit the back of the wall. Grinning to herself, she pressed the flat end of her boomerang to his throat but didn’t get to his hand quick enough. Dodging another hit, Marinette dropped and rolled backwards. Robin tried to overtake her from above but she got him off with a nice foot press.

Flinging her boomerang, it hit the wall behind him and knocked him in the head. Robin grumbled under his breath as the weapon landed back into her hand. Taking his pause to land another pressure hit on his wrist, his katana fell to the ground with a clatter.

Judgment darted forward, slipping her foot under the blade and catching it in her open hand. Robin raised an eyebrow and she held it in the wrong way but with a quick flick of her hand, she positioned it at his throat. He clamped his hands over the flat edge of the blade and flipped it out of her hands and Judgment sighed once again.

Robin went for another kick, but she also planted one on the one he was balancing on. Crashing to the floor, Judgment applied a bit of pressure to his wrist with the katana and leaned down. “I think I just won.”

She released her pressure from his wrist and offered a hand, but he was already back on his feet. Shrugging, she smoothed out nonexistent creases and smiled at the Bat Family. “So… alliance?”

“We’ll get you a comm. Meet us here again tomorrow night.”

“I’ll be there. Seven?”

“Seven.”

Giving Robin a small smile, really not wanting to offend him, she pushed out one more portal from her bracelet, stepping in and closing it quickly.

“Do a scan on her. She’s clearly not from here so she should stick out like a sore thumb,” Batman commanded Red Robin. Tim nodded, already thinking about how familiar she seemed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Marinette used the horse miraculous which will be really interesting for me to write about (cries in realism) because she has a boomerang to fight with. Marinette is now Sokka but with a bit extra on the side. The fighting scene had wayyyy too much thought put into it. Marinette isn't the best fighter but the point was to show that she adapts to the other person's skills and works with what she has. That being said, it's really hard to make someone with a boomerang win against someone with literally a lifetime of training and a sword. Rough.   
> :)


	12. The Identity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone brought up their opinions on the Bat-Family and researching Mari's identity and it was actually going to be in the book anyways, but they gave me some things to add on. Just a little peek into both perspectives on the situation :)

_ August 25th, 6:34 a.m. _

Tim Drake was exhausted. He had spent the entirety of the night before to research who Judgment could be. She was obviously french, had black hair and blue eyes but he couldn’t even get beyond estimating her age by range.

It felt like something was holding him back from figuring her out. She could also be teleporting to Gotham, but why?

His thoughts were interrupted when somebody else opened the door and slipped into a seat by the counter. Dark hair with indigo highlights was pulled up into a ponytail with a black ribbon. She was wearing the same uniform Damian wore everyday and her eyes flickered back at him and gave him a wide smile. She was the foreign exchange student Bruce had sponsored. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

“I see you managed to fix things up pretty quickly,” Marinette commented to the barista. He grinned, working on her iced caramel latte.

“It’s Gotham. This happens a lot.”

Marinette cringed, “Fun.”

She paid for her drink and popped off her seat to go over to Tim Drake. “Hi again.”

“Hello Marinette. I have to ask this really quick but: how has working with Damian been?” Tim peered curiously up at her with a mischievous smirk lacing his face.

Marinette shrugged, “Damian’s actually been the best partner for a project I think I’ve ever had. We both work hard but we both also know when to take a break and have fun for a while. He’s really sweet. Why do you ask?”

“Just wanted to make sure he was doing his part,” Tim commented slyly.

“Oh, well he is! Anyways, I have to go if I don’t want to be late for class. Bye Monsieur Drake.”  
Marinette waved delicately before heading out the door. Tim typed a quick text to the family group chat, waiting for chaos to arrive. _Marinette Dupain-Cheng just came into my favorite coffee shop and I asked her about Damian. She said he was sweet. What an interesting thing to say about demon spawn._ He sent it and leaned back in his seat. 

_Hmm,_ Cass replied back, _demon spawn was nice?_ _  
_ _Still not a date,_ Grayson teased in the group chat.

Damian didn’t reply to any of them. 

Marinette arrived at their class a while later, sipping on her coffee with a small smile. He felt his body go warm about how sincere it looked. It was weird to think about how much he hated her smiles before, but none of them seemed real. This one did though. She sat down beside him and gave him another sincere smile and his heart thrummed in his chest.

“Hi, Damian.”

“Hello, Marinette,” he felt his cheeks burn slightly as he thought back to the text. Had she really called him sweet? “Did Tim pester you when you went to get your coffee?”

“Oh. No, I was the one who started a conversation with him. Did I bother him or something? I just wanted to say hello,” Marinette’s smile fell into an uneasy frown.

“No, no. He just mentioned seeing you.”

“Oh, okay then,” Marinette looked so relieved over something so silly. “Uh, so when should we work on our project again?”

“I can do today and tomorrow - wait, no I can’t do today,” Damian thought, thinking back to Judgment’s appearance last night, “but tomorrow works.”

“I couldn’t do it today either. I am free tomorrow though. I’ll see you then?”

“Yeah.” He would rather have tomorrow that way he could spend more time working on the project with Marinette.  _ To get it done faster. Not because I want more time with her. _

When Damian focused his attention on the teacher, he noticed a bunch of people staring at the two uneasily. Narrowing his eyes, everyone turned away, but Marinette remained oblivious to the entire thing. She continued to drink her coffee, pulling out her sketchbook to sketch before class started. Damian leaned over to whisper in her ear, “It’s a unique design.”

“Oh! Uh thank you. I want to make it but I don’t think I have the time or really a good reason too. Other than to look at. It would be a shame though.

It was a ball gown made out of a pearl white material. A tight bodice was the beginning of the dress, a fabric wrinkled twist in the center before the fabric stretched out into a sweetheart neckline and went off the shoulder for sleeves. The end of the bodice was cut into a v-shape before the shirt billowed out into a skater skirt that went to the floor. It puffed out quite a bit but seemed to fit through a door, so small enough. The bottom of the skirt was red fading into the white.

“The bottom is similar to a blood stain though.”

Marinette giggled, “Yeah, it sort of is. I’m thinking of adding red somewhere else though to make it seem less like that or I may change the color. I’m not sure yet, but red sure does stand out.”

“It does.”

_ August 25th, 5:45 p.m. _

The rest of the school day faded away and Marinette was eventually home, forcing herself through five hours worth of homework. Sighing, she checked the time to see it was getting close to six, and rubbed the back of her neck soothingly. 

Her phone rang, “Hello?”

Adrien was clearly on the other line, “Sorry, I just wanted to talk with you. I know you’re about to go on your mission but I wanted to talk to you really quick.”

“Go on.”

“I met with my father again. And I just wanted to tell you that I think he’s really changed. He lets me speak and asks about my day and we just keep on discussing - eh - life.”

Marinette narrowed her eyes, “I’m really happy you think so. Why are you telling me this - not that I mind.”

“Because you said he would never change and that I should be careful.”

“You are being careful, yes?”

“He’s my father.”

Marinette felt her blood boil, “That doesn’t matter Adrien.”

“Yes it does!” Adrien growled out on the other line. Marinette flinched at his tone, not really used to her bright friend being so angry. Usually he was very pleading and what not.

She softened her tone, “No it doesn’t Adrien. You may be related by blood but that’s all that’s between you two. He once was your father but he chose to not be anymore. Him being your father didn’t matter when he akumatized and made you destroy the whole world.”

“What?”

“You were akumatized once. You didn’t know it because Bunnix brought me into the timeline and I had to undo one of my actions in the current timeline. It was all my fault but your father akumatized you and tossed you around before manipulating you until you panicked Adrien. You destroyed everything. I can’t let you feel like that again.”

“Marinette, you can’t fix me like a miraculous cure.”

“I’m not trying to fix you,” Marinette argued but her voice was hollow.

“Marinette, go meet Batman. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Marinette ran a hand through her hair, glancing at the clock, “Bye Adrien.”

“Bye Princess.”

Marinette felt her body vibrate but she shakily got up. Plagg darted out and pressed a gentle paw to her cheek, “Calm down, it never really happened.”

“But it did! I had to save him, Plagg. I can’t fail at this, he needs me right now,” Marinette choked out as she pulled out a pair of cat-eye sunglasses from her purse. She had brought Kaalki to school like usual but she made sure nobody saw the sunglasses. They were just like how they were when she was Judgment except completely black instead of gold framed. 

“Mari, you don’t need to save him. He has to do this himself -”

Marinette took off the delicate rose gold ring and placed it in her miraculous box, cutting Plagg off, at the back of her closet. Sighing at the silence, she placed the glasses on her head, ignoring the look Kaalki was giving her. There was no way to take Plagg with her, but she had easy access to her apartment when transformed. Maybe she shouldn’t have cut him off so rudely though.

“Kaalki, are you ready? Full Gallop!”  
She was submerged into neon blue light - similar to her portals - before finding herself in her white and faux leather attire. Fixing her sunglasses on her head, she opened a portal to teleport somewhere close to where she was meeting Batman. Scaling a building, she reached the roof and bounded from roof to roof. Finally getting to the one from yesterday, she gazed around to find anyone nearby. Sighing, she leaned back on the wall from the roof entrance building. 

Marinette had to admit to herself that she was slightly annoyed by their behavior. However, she knew that it was better than she worked with them from the start instead of them finding out about her and thinking she was some sort of criminal. The meta idea was really not the best, but she could at least have a reason to explain the protection of her suit and the teleportation. 

“I see you’re here early,” Batman commented.

Judgment turned to them, sighing slowly, “Yeah. But I’ve got to go after this unless anything serious comes up. I’ve got a couple things to do.”

“Don’t we all,” Red Hood stated, leaning up against the brick wall with her. Judgment rolled her eyes, sighing.

“Do you have school or something,” Red Robin asked not so slyly.

“Why do I feel like this is an interrogation - wait, did you guys try to  _ figure out my identity? _ ” Judgment felt anger burn under her skin, but exhaled slowly, “You didn’t do that right?”

“Pfft, of course we did,” Red Hood stated but got slapped in the back of the head by Red Robin.

Judgment rubbed her temples, glaring heavily at them, “Look, I’ve already given you  _ enough  _ information about myself. You know all of my weaknesses and strengths and we just met. My identity is crossing the lines and you should respect that. I’m assuming you found nothing?”

Batman was brooding in the background but everyone knew the reason behind wanting to know Judgment’s identity. They all thought she could possibly be a child and they needed to know who exactly they were bringing into dangerous situations. They didn’t know that if they found out her identity, they’d be messing with a girl who had been fighting a power hungry adult male since she was thirteen. They didn’t know they’d be making her situation worse. And only Marinette and Bunnix knew that Hawk Moth’s reign wasn’t over.

Her identity was something she had been holding onto for forever. If her parents didn’t know, then why should a group of stranger vigilantes deserve to know that.

“Are you a child?” Red Robin bluntly asked, deciding he might as well try.

Judgment clenched her fists, “Seriously?”

“We need to know who we’re bringing into this,” Batman gruffly started from behind the Robins.

“You’ve literally fought with a ten year old before.”

“He was trained.”

“So am I! And I’m pretty sure you all watched me kick his ass yesterday, no offense to him.”

Robin shrugged and looked away. This whole situation to him seemed very familiar to the one with Marinette and fairly ironic. This time, he decided to stay out of it. 

“Give me the comm,” Judgment said.

He handed her the earpiece and she put it in her ear. “Okay, so here’s the plan. I’m going to go patrol over there. You go do whatever it is you do. We’ll work together whenever needed, since you know,  _ I don’t have to do this just like you don’t and I barely want to.  _ Other than that, leave me alone.”

Marinette lost a bit of respect out of her own defense and hurt. She darted away and left the Bat-Family to discuss.

“She’s definitely around my age,” Robin commented, “But let’s not adopt another child please.”

“That went south fast,” Batgirl adjusted her cape.

“Should we follow her,” Red Hood asked, still focused on her retreated figure.

Batman shook his head, “No, let’s just patrol for now.”

Judgment didn’t have to see them for the rest of the night and only heard their voices a couple of times. She wasn’t expecting to be a part of the team, but wanted to get some training in with the suit. All they did was take down some minor crime and then she was back in her room, back to working on homework of all things.

It was around eleven when she finished it all, and then proceeded to work on her designs for two more hours before giving up and passing out on her desk. 

A nightmare struck her down. It was the day of the final battle, and she watched as Hawk Moth slammed Cat Noir into a building once again. Bitterness clawed up her body as she raged onward, using her lucky charm to fight him off from Chat. Time was running out. Then a burst of light happened. 

It was Adrien as Hawk Moth. His hair was side swept still and his green eyes looked so hazy as he stared down at her and himself. Cat Noir’s body was slung across her legs as tears streamed down her face.  _ “You killed him,”  _ she cried out.

_ “He was dead a long time ago.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's just to show you that nobody is necessarily in the wrong, because they're only trying to look out for Marinette but Marinette sees it as exposing herself. Anyways...We have a lot of fun chapters that are quickly coming and I'm debating updating a second chapter later today?  
> (It's a really cute one.)  
> :)


	13. The Vegetarian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Features a strong vegetarian and a clueless observant girl...   
> <3 This is technically a filler chapter, but I think it's super cute and shows some character development.

_ August 26th, 2:10 p.m. _

Marinette’s phone buzzed,  _ we need to talk, please.  _ Adrien had been texting her since yesterday when she revealed he was akumatized. 

She ignored it. Tikki was giving her disappointed glances around every corner, but she tried to ignore that too. It was the end of the day and she and Damian would be working on their final draft of their project. It was weird to see it all come to a close, but she early awaited his arrival at the steps of the school. It was strange to think that she came into the school wanting no friends but ended up being friends with the only other person who didn’t want any. He was unlike any friend she had before.

Adrien was always a lot more quiet until he revealed the true version of himself. The one that was hurt but also the most fun to be around. Damian was probably similar to that as well. Except instead of putting on a face of positive neutrality it was coldness.

You just had to understand him a bit better.

“Marinette,” he said, when he reached her. Marinette turned towards him and gave him a real smile. Damian felt something in his stomach twist, his body vibrating at her sincerity towards him.

“Hi, Damian! We’re heading to my house right?”

“Actually, I was thinking that we should go to the manor. Do you mind? If we end up working late, we can just eat dinner there too.”

Marinette shrugged, seeing as she was planning on going on a very light patrol and keeping her earpiece close to her. She had brought it to school anyways, and it resided with Kaalki and Tikki in her cross-body bag.

“As long as nobody minds. Are we walking?”

“No, it’s kind of a long way.”

Marinette nodded and waited patiently beside Damian as he called Alfred once again. They discussed random things to make the time pass before his overwhelmingly fancy car pulled up. Marinette slipped in and double checked to make sure she had everything on her. Sighing to herself, she pulled out a bag of pre-made macarons and dipped them into her cross-body bag when nobody was looking. Both Tikki and Kaalki had a sweet tooth so these days were much easier than the ones with Plagg.

Also, she really understood why Adrien would complain about the smell. 

Soon they were once again at the Wayne Manor and Marinette felt herself go giddy with delight. Today she did have her sketchbook but she probably shouldn’t do that during her time with Damian. Calming down, she consistently reminded herself that she was here to do school work, not give into her chaotic art nonsense. Sighing, she pressed her head to the back of the seat. Damian looked over gently, noticing her hand against her bag.

He knew Marinette loved the manor. However, it clearly wasn’t malicious intent, more like admiring it from afar to bask in it’s skilled architecture. He smiled to himself when they pulled in and thought he might actually show her his favorite rooms in the manor.

They both stepped out of the car and Marinette thanked Alfred before they all went into the manor. Now all they had to do was get in without anyone else in his family knowing he brought Marinette over. Her eyes got caught up in trance, and he could hear some footsteps when they first walked in. Huffing, he grabbed Marinette’s elbow and headed up the first staircase. Guiding Marinette to his room, he closed the door with a slam.

Marinette blushed timidly, “Sorry, I got distracted. Any reason why we dashed up to your room?”

“It’s best that my siblings don’t know you’re here otherwise they won’t stop pestering us, or me rather. You do have everything right?”

Marinette nodded, pulling her laptop from her bag, “I’ve got it right here. So we’re going to edit and adjust the rough draft and begin working on our final?”

“Yes, I’ve already reread the document.”

“Me too,” Marinette said, “I think everything’s in good order to be honest. Rewriting should mostly be adjusting some word choice and a simple grammar run over. I made a check-list for us to use when reviewing.”

“Sounds good,” Damian commented, before realizing that Marinette was in his room, a room he liked to keep mostly to himself. He should’ve just taken her to the study, but it was too late now. “We can work on the sofas if you want.”

Marinette nodded but her eyes darted around to absorb his room. It was fairly dark even with the french windows letting light pour in. Two blood red sofas were set out in front of a fireplace with a coffee table. A bookshelf was near the windows, filled with classics as far as Marinette could tell. His bed was set in the center with two nightstands, one on each side. In the corner was an easel, but Marinette resisted temptation to ask.

Or not, “Do you paint?”

“Occasionally. Can we get started?”

Marinette grumbled under her breath, but didn’t say anything more. They both continued to work in peace and quiet. Until the door was knocked open by a brute force.

“Demon spawn! Where did you put your ka -” Jason Todd froze into silence, noticing Marinette on the sofa. Her blue eyes curiously peered up at him, noticing the weapon in the hand but keeping a face of nonchalance. 

Jason hid the gun in the pocket of his pants with lightning instincts, hoping Marinette didn’t notice. 

“Todd. Could you not at this very moment?” Maybe Damian could've thought this out better but Marinette probably didn’t see the gun. Or thought it was something else. 

“Right. Anyways, why did you bring her over? I thought you guys mostly work at her apartment?”

“I wanted to show her something here. Why do you care?”

_ “A little warning could’ve been nice,”  _ Jason gritted out. He tilted his head in the direction of his pocket. 

Marinette coughed, a polite smile gracing her face, “Sorry for intruding Monsieur Todd. If you want, we can just work on this later?”

“No it’s fine. I am going to go tell everybody else.”

“Tch, or you could just stop barging into my room at unknown times like a spineless idiot,” Damian rolled his eyes, before turning to Marinette, “Come on, we’ll take a short break.”

They ended up going to the study anyways, and Marinette gaped at the towers of books. 

“Why are we here?”

A cat appeared in front of her Marinette squealed when it scratched at her leg. Bending down, she cooed at it, a dopey smile gracing her face. “You have a cat?”

“Alfred. Yes. I have a dog named Titus too and a turkey and cow.” Damian muttered something about Goliath, but he probably couldn’t show Marinette his bat. 

“You named him Alfred?” Marinette grinned up at him, watching the cat settle into her lap and lick her finger, “Monsieur Alfred is definitely your favorite huh?”

“You could say that. I figured you’d like animals.”

Marinette giggled and Damian smiled back, sitting on the ground beside her and leaning over to pet Alfred, “Yeah of course. In Paris though, I thought that I would mostly end up with a hamster but I would always love to have more. I was thinking about volunteering at an animal shelter as an after school activity, but I have had time to research any.”

Damian hummed, and Marinette turned around and saw his small smile. She felt her face burn at the sight, an overwhelming twist in her stomach. She really liked it when he smiled. And his close proximity. He was really close, leaning over like that, and it made her think that Damian didn’t mind her existence too much.

“I will go with you. We can research some respectable ones together, but I already have a list. I made my father donate to a lot of them when I was thirteen.”

“You really like animals, huh?”

“They don’t speak.”

Marinette laughed, her eyes brightening, “That’s really cute, demon spawn.”

Damian felt himself freeze up at the compliment. He narrowed his eyes at her,  _ “Demon spawn?” _

“Yeah, that’s what Monsieur Todd called you earlier,” Marinette smirked, “I like it, just a bit. Not necessarily true, but your reaction makes it fun.”

“What would you be? An angel?”

Marinette snorted, “I wish. Clearly we both don’t fall into the guarantees of our nicknames. You’re definitely not a demon and I am far from an angel.”  
“I don’t know about all that. You’re definitely an angel. Me being a demon isn’t too far off.”

Marinette tense, her eyes focused on Damian with a frown, “You’re not a demon. Literally, you haven’t given me a single reason to believe you’re anything other than an angel. Just because you’re icy doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. You’re just a bit different.”

Damian sighed, and stood up, “Come on, do you want to meet Titus?”

Marinette nudged at Alfred to make him get up but he wouldn’t budge, “I can’t. Help?”

Damian snickered before going through a drawer of a nearby desk. He pulled out a cat treat and lured Alfred off of Marinette, “He really liked you.”

“The highest of compliments,” Marinette said with a proud grin. “I’m excited to meet Titus though. What kind of dog is he?”

“Dane. And knowing him, he probably got back into my room. We can head back up and finish working on our project.”

“Okay.”

Dick Grayson was peering around a corner and studying the pair. When they entered the hallway, he saw Marinette’s eyes flit to him but she seemed to dismiss his presence. Damian, however, glared strongly, knowing his brother was only planning on spying on the two for the rest of the afternoon.

Dick rolled his eyes.  _ If he had just warned the family that he was bringing her over and stopped trying to hide her, he wouldn’t be as suspicious and in the way.  _ For someone who had thought everything out before, Damian had made a rookie mistake. Who brings a bystander - a possibly liability - into their house that has knives hidden in plants and books? 

Marinette still looked around innocently, and when she reached his room, she grinned widely at the sight of the dark dog curled up by the fireplace. 

“Oh, he’s so cute! Can I ask how you found him? Did you purchase him or adopt him from a rescue service?”

Damian shrugged, a lie slipping into his head. Most of it would be true, at least. “I found him on the streets and like the pest he is, he wouldn’t stop following me. So I took him home. My father wasn’t exactly the most excited to find out that his youngest was building a serious problem with adopting every animal he crossed.”

“Aw, I can imagine!” Marinette bent down to Titus and let him sniff her fingers before she petted his stomach with a childish smile on her face. He had never seen her so happy, and found himself matching her energy, “Baby Damian must’ve been a pain in the ass. Did you force everyone in your family to be a vegetarian?”

“What?” Damian crossed his arms, “Absolutely not. I did become vegetarian myself, as you already know. Then the donations. And I made Jason stop wearing actual leather jackets and made sure our meat came from places that treat animals with respect. That’s all.”

Marinette smiled so sincerely at him that he became flustered once again, “You’re adorable.”

Now his face was burning. Damian rolled his eyes and subtly coughed to try to cool off his fluster.  _ Dammit, how is she doing this? I haven’t even made her blush once.  _

“I would love to see your other animals some day. We should probably get back to work though,” Marinette let out a long sigh, giving her laptop and stack of papers a feeble glare, “We’re getting close to being done. Once we finishing touches, we can think about the presentation. I’ve never had to present an essay before, but it shouldn’t be too terribly difficult. We’ll just make sure we hit all of the points laid out by the teacher.”

“Sounds good.”

For the rest of the afternoon, the two finished their project and began to work on presentation notes. Marinette had gotten distracted by Alfred bringing in tea and had showered the poor deprived butler with compliments - Alfred had to admit, Marinette seemed brighter than when he first met her and really liked to see a delightful person with Damian, even if it was just a project. He hid a smile at the fact that Damian had never really invited a girl over before. - and loomed over Damian’s bookshelf. She was commenting carelessly on some of the books, intrigued by classics and noting some that were classic in France as well.

“You’re a big fan of Charles Dickens, huh?”

“It was something both my father and I liked. I guess it sort of stuck,” Damian mindlessly said.

Marinette hummed in response, “Your father seems rather emotionless. It must be hard sometimes to bond over things. Though, you lack emotions often too.”

“How observant,” Damian sarcastically replied.

Marinette snickered, “I appreciate your sentiment. It was just on my mind.”

Her phone buzzed, and a groan followed. Damian was starting to get annoyed, “Who keeps on texting you constantly?”

Marinette felt her heart drop, running a hand through her hair. “I swore I put him on do not disturb.”

“That’s rather rude of you. Who is it, Adrien?”

Marinette sniffed, refusing to comment. She knew Damian probably didn’t even think his guess was right.

“Wait really? I thought you two were inseparable?”

“Could you not?” Marinette hissed, picking up her phone and turning it off all the way. “It’s my fault, but I would rather not talk to him right now.”  
Damian winced. He probably should’ve stayed out of that conversation. Marinette frowned, “It’s actually getting close to five thirty. I should probably pack up and go, if you don’t mind.”

“Alright. We only have a few things to go over. We can just face time through them if you want though?”

“Sounds fine. Do we even have each other’s numbers?” Marinette swept through her phone and realized she only had his email. “That’s a no. Here, I can type mine in.”

Damian pulled up a contact and Marinette filled it in. He did the same for her and they both nodded. “Thanks for having me.”

“You’re welcome,” Damian said, watching her pull her things together and leave his room. He escorted her to the car where Alfred was waiting and watched the car drive off. He couldn’t help but feel anger towards himself for killing the mood in the last couple of minutes. Sighing, he scratched the back of his neck and quickly dodged Dick who was darting towards him with thousands of questions.

He couldn’t help but wonder how clueless Marinette actually was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting really close to a major plot point in this series and I hope that you guys are well prepared... I don't know if I am. Hint: it's what Bunnix was talking about in the chapter called "The Umbrella". Yeah, we're already getting to there. Just a couple more chapter to go before we reach that point.  
> :)


	14. The Argument

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is just furthering the downward spiraling plot...  
> Enjoy lots of post-trauma content...  
> :(  
> (It felt weird to put a smile there, so there's a frown instead)

_ September 1st, 6:54 p.m. _

A week had passed and it was now a late Monday night. Marinette was transformed into Judgement, and was jumping from building to building. She had to meet up with the group tonight, something they had done seldom recently. They kind of left her on her own for the first week, occasionally letting one of the Robins to go check in on her to see how she was handling situations. Sometimes they would cross paths and fight together. Today, she figured, was going to be different.

Marinette couldn’t lie to herself. She had already figured out their identities but tried to convince herself otherwise. Even though they had far better masks than her own - she still was curious on how they white out their eyes without making it hard to see, maybe it was a night vision mask? - she had a hint of magic protecting her identity from them all.

Only cold hard evidence would break through the barrier that was miraculous magic. Incredible, but not unbreakable.

Her mind was a bit all over the place recently. She hadn’t really had to talk to Damian since they finished their project last week. Adrien was still texting her, but she had limited their conversation to text messages. She was beginning to feel really guilty about that but she was also scolding herself for revealing the fact that he was akumatized and how much she disliked Gabriel Agreste.

It had become her business though, and she couldn’t find it in herself to trust Gabriel.

She absentmindedly wondered what Master Fu would think of all of this. She missed him, and sometimes wished he hadn’t lost his memory like that, but that would be selfish of her to even linger on.

He shouldn’t have taken on this burden at such a young age. And to go through such terrible training. She knew that it was technically his fault that the miraculous were stolen but she understood how bad it must’ve felt to be starving on a podium. 

Sighing, she reached the meeting spot, “Hello.”

“Judgement, we have a task to ask of you,” Batman skipped all forms of greetings, “We would like you to begin patrolling with Robin.”

Judgement furrowed her brows, “Okay. Can I ask why?”

“Not right now. We’ll fill you in later.”

Judgement rolled her eyes internally but didn’t want to show too much disrespect to the Dark Knight. Rubbing the back of her neck, she turned to Robin - who was probably the youngest Wayne, and her newest friend of sorts, Damian.

“Where should we start?”

“East.”

No doubt about his identity after tonight. The more he spoke, the more she could hear Damian through the mask. In his defense, he had prepared for Jason Todd smashing through his door with a knife asking about his katana. Robin had a katana and was clearly around her age, a bit older.

It was hard to ignore all of the evidence that was smashed into her face. There was still a lot about Damian Wayne that she hadn’t figured out yet, so she stayed quiet. 

“I think I see something in that alley,” Judgement whispered to Robin, peering over an edge. He had settled beside her and she nearly jumped out of her costume. He was so quiet.

Robin nodded his head and Judgement was acutely aware of how their shoulders brushed against. This is why she shouldn’t have known his identity. Now all she could think was about Damian and his private smile.

Exhaling, she reminded herself that she didn’t  _ really  _ know it was Damian. 

“I think I can knock three out with my boomerang. You ready?”

Robin raised a brow from under his mask and she shrugged and waved the boomerang in his face. Bending down, she flicked her eyes around and looked at the tight alleyway. Max was far better at this than her, but there was no time to think about a boy who was all the way in Paris. Raising her arm back, she used momentum when she brought back to her chest and flung it out.

Feeling a bit of pride when everyone got knocked out, she jumped from wall to wall until she reached the floor and felt everyone turn towards her. They all surrounded her and she started off with a couple of basic kicks. Robin snuck in behind all of them and helped her out, easily maneuvering and taking large men out.

Her eyes flickered towards the hostages and Robin quickly untied them and called the police over. Using the same rope that was around the hostages, they tied it around the men.

“That wasn’t so bad. Good job, Robin,” Judgment congratulated him and tucked her boomerang back into her side.

Robin sighed, “I don’t need you to congratulate me. I’ve done this many times before. Focus on yourself.”

_ Well, I had fought a psychotic villain at the age of thirteen without even my parents knowing.  _ Judgement rolled her eyes, “Okay, then.”

She thought he had taken her win very well, but you can’t be a vigilante without some confidence - she supposed. Marinette had lost her confidence as Ladybug and it almost made her lose everything.

Robin was studying her intensely. Judgement was sort of nice to be around. She stayed pretty quiet and focused. His job that night was to look after her without being intimidating so he could report back to his father about her, but he actually wasn’t hating being there. 

The more he looked at her, the more familiar she felt. He was beginning to have a guess at her identity but the more he tried to connect the dots, the more foggy his head felt. Marinette and Judgement were at least similar.

That’s sort of what happens when your once two very separate lives blend together. Marinette could guess that the reason behind that was when she and Chat found out about each other’s identities. Then she had a hard time being just Marinette and just Ladybug. She was still more opinionated and slightly more rude in her transformed version, but they were now the same.

Both of them were figuring each other out. 

Judgement stepped under a lamp post, and stared up at the night sky with a sigh, “It’s really beautiful out tonight.”  
Robin froze at the sudden pause from running along rooftops and jumped down onto the light post. He bounced off the ledge and landed beside her, “I suppose so.”

He turned towards her and could see her bright blue eyes staring at the stars. He bit his lip; noting how their eyes were both beautiful. 

“I guess we should continue then, Robin,” Judgement said, but her eyes didn’t break away from the skyline.

“Yeah, we should.”

_ September 1st, 12:03 a.m. _

Marinette yawned as her transformation fell away. Even though she was with someone tonight when she patrolled, she still got to think about a lot of things. She realized that her behavior towards Adrien was not okay and reached for her phone. They both had not acknowledged all of the bad parts about their relationship, and this was one of those things. She could at least talk with him for a while and maybe it would help him. She had to help him if she could. 

She let it ring, slowly sinking towards her room and dug out pajamas. Knowing Adrien, he was probably up and getting ready for school in Paris.

“Mari?”

“Chaton?” Marinette whispered, “Can we talk?”

“Of course little bug,” Adrien sounded like he was entering his bathroom.

She just focused on the sound of his footsteps against the tile, “I’m sorry for avoiding you recently.”

Adrien sighed, “Mari, it’s fine.”

“Is it really fine, Chaton? Because I feel terrible,” Marinette felt her throat closing up, “And I just dropped your akumatization on you like that. That wasn’t okay.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before? Why did you only bring it up to prove a point?” Adrien asked but his voice got softer and more hollow,  _ “Do you not trust me?” _

“No. No, of course not! Adrien, I’ve trusted you with my life since we were thirteen. I don’t know.” Maybe it was because she was scared of how he’d react. She didn’t want to damage him and more than his own father.

“Marinette. Are you keeping things secret from me?”

Marinette pressed her phone in between her shoulder and head, picking at her fingernails, “No, I’m not.”

“Why does it always feel like I’m the one giving you my burden and you never say anything about yourself. Marinette, you were given a traumatizing job at age thirteen and handed a role with all of the power in the world at age fourteen. There’s no way you’re just okay with everything. I’m sick of telling you everything and you telling me nothing. We never talk about you anymore and you never - I know it’s not my place, but I want to be here for you.”

“There’s really nothing to talk about Adrien,” Marinette steadied herself, slowly pronouncing the words, “I go to school, I come home, do homework and then patrol. I’m tired but that’s all. I’ve been sleeping better than I was back in Paris.”

“You were always late to class and fell asleep so many times. I can’t believe I had overlooked that for three years. I didn’t even think about it or question it and then Lila would always say it was because you were lazy - and I knew she lied, but I just never thought -”

“I slept enough. When I fell asleep so many times it was my own fault. It had nothing to do with being Ladybug.”

Adrien’s hand slammed down on something, “It  _ had everything  _ to do with being Ladybug. Have you ever thought about taking care of yourself?”

Marinette felt her blood boil. “You’re not exactly the best person to be scolding me, Adrien.”

Adrien went silent on the other end of the line. He exhaled before continuing, “I have a therapist. I’m not playing superhero anymore. I didn’t see everything that happened in the last battle. You know who isn’t doing any of those things?”

Marinette felt herself go silent, “Being Ladybug was not traumatizing. I got my fair share of fame and glory and I have no right to complain about anything when any other citizen could do it and most wanted to.”

“That’s not even true. You do remember when I was ‘Mister Bug’ right?”

“Yes, and all I did was be arrogant about it and make you overthink everything.”

“You’re human,” Adrien argued.

“Adrien, who else do you talk to about these things?” Marinette switched the conversation’s direction, not wanting to argue with him anymore. 

“Plenty of people. I have loads of friends at my new school with Felix.” 

_ Why does it feel like he’s lying?  _ Then again, Marinette couldn’t say the same for herself. She had blocked almost anyone out at Gotham Academy except for Damian - and that relationship was forced onto him. She was such a terrible person. She couldn’t even get one person to willingly be her friend.

“Okay. Are you sure you’re doing okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Even with my father, we’re all doing fine on my end.”

_ Was he lying? _

“I’ll let you get to school then?”

“Yeah. Bye, Marinette.”

“Bye, Adrien.”

The call ended and Marinette leaned her head back. Groaning, she scooped up her clothes and entered her bathroom.

The time before Adrien started dating Kagami was one of the darkest moments of her life. She was so caught up in her own depleting mentality that she took it out on so many people. The jealousy she had was obsessive. Marinette hadn’t really gotten jealous in a while, but there was nothing to be jealous of.

She couldn’t even imagine having a crush, or even a relationship with a lot of people right now. She was just planning on focusing on being Ladybug - or well, Judgement. 

Her mind kept on going back to everything he said. He kept on claiming that her role as Ladybug was a burden, but it wasn’t. Marinette would just get flustered and become over the top sometimes, and she had shown him too much of that. She didn’t want people to know how weak she was, and that’s all she felt she was.  _ Weak.  _ Who complains about being a famous hero? Being in control and protecting so many special powers.

Adrien had been fighting with his father, he was the one who had a burden. Marinette didn’t want to hurt him more. She had made a mistake when she brought up his akumatization and she really shouldn’t have done it to further her argument like that. 

Hopefully, Marinette would get better. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should probably apologize, but it only gets worse before it gets better...  
> BUT it does get better!  
> :)  
> Also love editing (I do brief editing before uploading but it's mostly a spell check). Favorite mistake so far was accidentally pressing two instead of one. (ie: 2st)


	15. The Descent

_ September 4th, 5:03 a.m. _

Marinette had a headache when she woke up. Slumped over at her desk - because she rarely slept in her bed anymore - her phone vibrated beside her. Lifting her hair out of her view, she grabbed the phone and pressed the answer button when she saw it was Adrien on the other end of the line.

A yawn escaped her when she answered, “Adrien? Is everything alright?”  
The line was quiet. Marinette pulled herself off of her desk, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. It was a bit earlier than she liked to wake up for the most part, but she could deal with it.

“Adrien?”

He was so quiet but she could hear his breathing. Maybe he was overthinking the fact that he woke her up? Hopefully it wasn’t serious.

Marinette felt hesitant, but continued to straighten up her desk, her eyes narrowing at an unfinished project she had to finish by tomorrow night. Yesterday she had sent out a whole bundle of her orders, but she hadn’t gotten this one done yet.

She focused on Adrien’s breathing and closed her eyes, “I miss being with you sometimes. I’m sorry things have been so weird between us lately. I should be more honest with you if I expect you to do the same.”

“Marinette,” Adrien sounded exhausted, “I’m sorry too.”

Marinette chuckled, but it wasn’t out of humor, “What do you even have to be sorry about?”  
He paused, “I put so much pressure on you. You’re always trying to help me out no matter what.”

Marinette sighed, pressing a finger to her temple, “That’s my choice Adrien, you didn’t force it onto me.”

“But we never talk about your problems.”

“We did recently,” Marinette mentioned, thinking about two days before, “Plus, there’s not much to talk about.”

_ “There’s plenty to talk about.” _

Marinette glanced at the clock, “Adrien, aren’t you in school right now?”

“You’re right, I should go.”

“What? That’s not what I said -”

The line ended. Marinette furrowed her brows, suddenly feeling very sick. Her headache was getting worse. She really did miss him a lot, but they both agreed about this choice eventually. Even though it meant splitting them up - since Adrien couldn’t escape his Aunt’s claws and honestly didn’t want to leave - it was best to get the miraculous out and with the guardian.

Even though she still didn’t feel like a guardian. 

Besides the point. Marinette tossed her phone lightly onto her bed and began to get dressed. Fixing her hair, she tied her black ribbon and gave a passing look towards her reflection. She and Adrien were beginning to be more honest with each other and she was starting to want to tell him everything. Maybe things would get better.

Marinette made a quick iced coffee for her to drink as she went out onto her balcony and let the air of Gotham brush her cheeks. It looked like it would probably rain sometime that day. She grabbed her raincoat when she finally had to leave for school.

_ September 4th, 7:45 a.m. _

“Great job, Damian and Marinette. Your work was well planned out and clearly you both did your part.”

The praise was rather sweet after working for hours on their project. Marinette bowed her head slightly and they returned to their seats. Damian glanced at her, watching her chin rest on her crossed arms, hunched over the desk. She seemed really tired lately, but all of her smiles towards him were sincere.

Brushing her shoulder with his side, he watched as she tucked some of her hair behind her ear and stared at him with a small grin. Damian Wayne - the boy who avoided most human contact - was offering her a fist much. Bumping his fist with her own, she felt her stomach bubble up and she hid a wide smile back in her arms.

Marinette had been doing very late patrols with her new buddy Robin recently. The more time she spent with him, the more she felt it was the boy sitting beside her currently. She tried to not connect the dots but it felt so obvious to her. 

For the rest of class, Marinette tried to pay attention to presentations but thoughts of Adrien ran through her mind. She was set on giving him a call as soon as possible, but lunch wasn’t for awhile. She wondered if he skipped, but that didn’t seem much like him at all. Adrien talked about how excited he was to finally be going to school now that his father couldn’t force him to skip for photo shoots. She still pondered over whether he had friends or not. 

Marinette felt like she was to blame. Even back before she knew Adrien was Cat Noir, she had not been as understanding of him. She never knew how bad his home life was. She could remember the first couple of days she had met Adrien where she disliked how much he was like Chloé. Now they were both her friends - or Chloé was something along those lines.

In her call, Marinette planned to spill her guts. She wanted to know what was happening with Adrien. This was the only way. 

Damian flicked his eyes back towards Marinette. “So Marinette,” he dragged out her name, watching her head turn towards him, “I was wondering if there were any other heroes in France besides Ladybug and her team.”

Marinette tensed at the mention of Ladybug, “Not that I know of. Why do you ask?”

“Have you heard about the new hero, Judgment? I figured out she was from France.”

“No I haven’t really been paying attention to the news.”

Damian frowned, “That will get you killed in Gotham. You should pay attention to the news more often.”

“Whatever,” Marinette said, but considered his words. “What are your thoughts on this new hero?”

Damian bit the inside of his cheek. He was going to need to get a reaction out of Marinette to prove his theory. He knew he should stop researching her life like before, but he just really wanted to know. It wasn’t to tell his family, but maybe he wanted Marinette to be a hero. He wasn’t sure why, but he wanted her to be one.

“She doesn’t really compare to our Gotham heroes. Plus, she’s a meta so she could go off the rails.”

Marinette was just nodding along, not a single drop of offence on her face. She took a sip out of the drink beside her.

_ Shit.  _ Was he really just imagining Marinette as this superhero?

Marinette didn’t look like she particularly cared for the conversation they were having and to be honest, Marinette didn’t strike him as a good liar. To him, he thought she would easily get flustered or upset that he called her a risky meta. Even though he knew Judgment's power was probably something pretty easily hidden, he thought that Marinette might be more obvious about being a meta too if she was one. 

Marinette tucked her chin into her arms, “Angel, I don’t listen to the news much, but I have heard that you’ve been in a couple of instances as a wealthy son in Gotham. Are you okay?”

Damian tilted his head, but didn’t take his gaze off of the group currently presenting, “I’m not really upset about it. I can handle myself.”

  
Marinette gave him a half-smirk, “Okay, Angel.”

“Are you seriously calling  _ me  _ Angel,” Damian’s gaze became dark, as though he were teasing her with his own past. Marinette didn’t finch, and this worried him most, “My own brothers call me demon spawn - which you called me yourself - and if anyone is an Angel, it’s you.”

Marinette groaned, but it was playful, “This conversation again? I don’t see you as a demon, I just can’t see that. You’re too nice.”

_ “Too nice?”  _ Damian was incredulous. Nobody in his entire life had ever called him nice. Marinette could not possibly be sober. Damian couldn’t help the snort, “I’m sorry, where did you get that information?”

Marinette furrowed her brows, “I mean, you can be a little shit -”

“Oh, gee, thanks.”

  
“- _let me speak._ But you really just want peace and quiet. You tolerate me, which in itself is plenty of kindness.”  
Damian was becoming more and more confused, “Weren’t you the one who said people naturally come towards you? Isn’t that how you magically got a partner for this project.”

Her gaze averted. Eyelashes brushed her cheeks as she looked down, “I naturally attract people, because they think I’m overwhelmingly bright. But - nobody really stays. Adrien’s kind of an exception, but it’s because we don’t really talk about me - which is my choice. My problems aren’t worth mentioning and whenever I speak about them, it just makes me feel worse. But sometimes it's so hard to be happy and then people get frustrated when I don’t fit the expectations they gave me. You’re different, because you had no expectations of me.”

“I had expectations of you,” Damian mumbled, “but they were all bad.”

Marinette swallowed, her breathing escalating. 

_ You’re our everyday Ladybug,  _ was what Adrien once said. Then she became a girl sickened with jealousy and she wondered often if it were really Lila’s fault. Nothing that Lila did was inherently bad - other than the whole expelling thing, but Marinette  _ had  _ challenged her. Adrien, she thought he wasn’t by her side, but he eventually told her that he had confronted Lila. What if she was the problem the entire time? Everyone expected her to be flawless and she barely managed acceptable.

She was always so positive. As Ladybug. As Marinette. Were the two that different? Stress had piled up on both sides and it was like she couldn’t escape a living hell. But - it wasn’t that bad. Lila would’ve backed off if Marinette hadn’t been so arrogant, right? She could’ve innocently gone with everything but instead she was jealous of a liar. A liar who had nothing, but lies. Marinette was jealous of lies. And always thought she was in the right.

What was wrong with her?

Marinette felt herself overflow with self hatred. Everything about her past self she wanted to burn. Why did Adrien even stay around? What was so special about Marinette? Other than her being a superhero who became so selfish that she decided to trade her best friend and his father’s life for someone else’s. And now she was thinking about her own problems instead of Adrien.

“My expectations of other people are always bad though,” Damian broke her out of her thoughts. “I don’t really like anyone.”

Marinette laughed, but it was like a whisper, “Then I guess you’ll figure me out eventually.”

Damian furrowed his brows and she numbly thought about him with a black mask and white eyes. She couldn’t let him figure out her identity. That was not another thing she could fail at. She just had to fully recover her relationship with Adrien, keep her identity a secret while growing stronger, keep straight A’s so she could still continue to have her scholarship, work on clothes and keep to herself. It couldn’t be so hard.

_ September 4th, 2:43 p.m. _

Marinette was walking back home, letting the rain drip down her cheeks. She had prepared for it to rain, and now it was pouring.

Her mind was on Adrien when her phone rang again. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the boy or her parents.

It was Kagami.

Marinette felt herself stir in confusion. Kagami and Marinette were still friends even after she and Adrien had broken up. It’s not like Marinette was planning on making a move on Adrien by then, and Kagami was too good of a friend to lose. But when Marinette had moved to Gotham, they hadn’t really spoken, unsurprisingly. Her mom still restricted her phone calls.

She hadn’t really talked to anyone really. She knew that if she reached out, they would respond, but she couldn’t. She thought about it, but didn’t. Despite the rough ground between her and her class back in France, with Lila and all of that, she still had Luka, Kagami and somewhat Chloé.

“Kagami?  _ Ça va?” _

_ “Mari, c’est Adrien.” _

Adrien?  _ “Je ne sais pas -” _

“We all just got a message from him. His Aunt, she found him in his room and called us because we - we were close. Luka… Chloé and I. I don’t think she wanted you to know because you can’t really come and see him - but I can’t just not tell you. You’re his best friend. She found him in his room, Mari… he had - he had…”

Marinette felt her stomach drop, her phone clattered to the wet pavement. Her legs gave out as she numbly stared out. People passed by with question gazes, but she couldn’t move. Rain poured down now, such a sharp twist into her skin. The rain droplets acted as her tears as she whimpered uncontrollably. She felt so barren, having not cried in three years. She wanted to mourn her best friend. She wanted to cry.

But she couldn’t physically do it anymore. Hiccuping, she scooped herself off the ground, her whole body vibrating with each step. She lifted her phone back up to her ear. “He didn’t.”

“He attempted to - he attempted to - to,” she could hear Kagami shaking on the other end, “But he’s in the hospital now and he - he should be fine, they say. I haven’t seen him yet but we’re all on our way. I wish you were here.”

“I should’ve been there,” Marinette rasped out, her voice cracking. Their friendship was just starting to become so much better. She was going to be better for him. Adrien deserved better. How unhappy was he feeling? How had she made herself so unreachable that he couldn’t talk to her about it. She ended the call.

She felt so much rage at Hawk Moth, some even towards Adrien. But above all, herself. 

Adrien. Cat Noir. His name was slandered by everyone. He was bullied at their old school, she knew this. It was supposed to be getting better. He was going to therapy. He said he had friends. She had  _ heard his voice  _ just this morning. Did he… was that his  _ goodbye? _

Her breaths began to be more uneven as she panicked internally. She couldn’t get a breath out of her throat.

She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe.

Adrien. Adrien. Adrien.

She tried to collect herself. She walked for what felt like hours, and probably was. In the pouring rain that soaked into her skin. Her clothes became a second skin, sticking to each cell. She knew where she was going, and remained silent. 

_ Mini-bug, you keep on blocking anyone from getting close to you because you’re scared. _

_ I’m just telling you to be more open to people here in Gotham. Something really bad is going to happen to you, and things are already bad enough. _

She finally understood. 

The streets of Gotham seemed to loom over her. She wished she was beside Adrien. She wished she could’ve stopped him. Was this her fault? Punishment for reviving him? She couldn’t handle the thought of losing him once again.

Alix had told her Adrien was going to be okay, right?

Looking up at the house, she wobbled, pushing the large gate open without any issue. She should’ve been concerned, but she wasn’t. Alfred had noticed the girl and had opened it for her, so it didn’t matter anyways.

She stumbled up the stairs, her hand shivering over the doorbell. She knew they had cameras and could see her. 

“I’ll get it,” a muffled voice said. Marinette wobbled more. What was she doing? Damian could care less -

Damian had somehow - magically, maybe it was something having to do with Marinette being lucky for being ladybug and it had seeped into her normal life, or maybe it was just by chance - ended up being the one to open up the door. 

She felt herself collapse onto his shoulder, her whole body seeping into his skin. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was planned from the start as I made a point to hint towards something being wrong on Adrien's end. I will not being going in depth about the suicide attempt - it's just not right for this sort of story - but the reasons will be explained very soon. Also, this is not for Marinette, all it does is make her situation worse because she was about to talk things out with him. This is completely about Adrien and how depressed he is. And his relationship with his dad being so unhealthy. Do I think cannon Adrien is necessarily suicidal? Not really, but I do think he's still a bit depressed. Do I think that this Adrien is depressed? - obviously. None of this story is about Damian being better for Marinette than Adrien, it's about how their mentalities were really ruined during their fights as young superheroes and how Damian can really relate to them. He's a bit further in the healing process and he's someone who could relate. Is he a therapist? No. Is he going to solve all of their problems? No. But his relationship with Marinette matters, and in the future, so will his relationship with Adrien. 
> 
> Because Adrien IS NOT dying nor is dead. He's alive, just really at an all time low. I had a hard time making this chapter feel right because it still feels so soon, but it was necessary for the plot to progress and I was done writing half-fillers. Kinda the reason why this chapter is a bit late, because I was debating harshly on it. 
> 
> This is like the only dark thing in this fic though, other than really bad mental health problems and a possible future murder. Hope I didn't scare you off??? I don't even know, this is rough. And will probably be severely edited in the future.   
> :)


	16. The Fireplace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little softer of a chapter.  
> So much character development to come which is always great :)

_ September 4th, 6:23 a.m. _

_ Paris, France _

Adrien felt so groggy the past few months. Everything seemed so repetitive and like such a blur. He was barely alive most of the time, except when he spoke with Marinette and went to see his father. But even then, it mostly felt like days drifted on by without him.

He knew he wasn’t going to be as easily liked anymore. His father was Hawk Moth, someone who fed on other people’s worst emotions. He wasn’t at a school with most people he could trust, but sometimes he would briefly wonder if they had really liked him afterwards. There was some bullying, but it wasn’t as bad as it was now. Nino was the only one he really talked to from his old school.

They even still hung out frequently, and occasionally Alya was there. She was a bit more awkward around him though. Luka would talk to Adrien over the phone quite often and sometimes Adrien would just sigh and listen to a distant strumming of Luka’s guitar. He wasn’t necessarily happy in those moments, but he didn’t feel so stressed.

Chloé had never stopped talking with him. Things didn’t change between them in the slightest. She had really matured since when they were younger. He appreciated her help, and had even mentioned her own emotions and how she coped. Chloé was far from perfect, but she was all he needed sometimes to calm down.

Then of course, there was Marinette. His heart ached for her sometimes, he knew her life wasn’t anywhere near perfect either. He knew there were so many things she never told him about and it frustrated him so much. He didn’t want to be the only one talking. He felt so dependent on her and everything in his body screamed that it wasn’t okay. 

Marinette had so many problems. Adrien could distantly remember the day back when Chloé had been akumatized willingly. How she had sobbed, the stress overflowing and drowning her. He watched her built up frustration spill. He hadn’t even thought too much when she had been handed guardian, but now he knew. He knew she never wanted to be Ladybug in the first place, much less the guardian. 

He had comforted her and he realized that nobody was ever watching after her. He knew that it would’ve been okay if she had gotten akumatized, but incredibly difficult to solve. Adrien didn’t have Marinette’s thought process and Alix would’ve probably had to bring in a Ladybug from a separate timeline. Marinette had never let that happen though, no matter the shit Lila put her through.

Was he not doing enough about Lila? He was so sure that confronting her would make it worse, but now he was second guessing everything.

He had to protect her, but he was failing at that and it seemed she was protecting  _ him.  _

Adrien had never been so angry before. He would get weird spouts of anger where he could barely control himself. He rarely got angry before he found out his father was Hawk Moth, mostly just disappointed. He supposed that was why he was giving the miraculous of destruction but now he was glad Marinette had it.

He just felt so wrong all the time. It was so hard to get out of bed. He had to wake up much earlier after staying up late - just so he could convince himself to get up.

His therapist claimed that he was getting better, but it didn’t feel that way. 

“Adrien, it’s time for school? Are you ready?” His aunt’s sugary sweet voice reminded him so bitterly of his mother’s but it was just too false. Too forced. Everyone in his family was beginning to feel like that.

He hadn’t been able to get out of bed. He woke up hours ago but he felt tied down to the sheets. He didn’t want to get out of bed, feeling exhausted - so exhausted.

“I’m not feeling well.”

His aunt never second guessed much, knowing better from Felix. If you pushed in suspect of a trick, you’d just become ensnared in his mouth full of lies. Felix was clever like that. Adrien wasn’t like him, but his aunt treated him the same for the most part. Maybe, like he said, a bit more forced, but it wasn’t awful. Sometimes he’d compare it to his father and it seemed like actual love, but he wasn’t sure what that was anymore either. 

“Alright, you can have today off. I’ll make sure the maids tend to you. I’m off to work and Felix is about to head out. Bye Adrien.”

He laid there for hours. Trapped in his own mind and thoughts.

Visiting his father had been a knife in a healing wound. He thought he could handle it but Marinette was right. He was sure it wasn’t his father’s fault. When he looked through that wall that divided them, he felt something so strange in his chest. Pressure. Like sinking to the bottom of a pool.

Pity.

He had felt pity for his father. Adrien wasn’t completely naive. He was aware not everyone was going to change. He knew his father wasn’t going to be fixed and knew that he, himself, wasn’t going to be angry. The desperation that leaked out of his father’s voice as he skimped over apologies. Adrien was almost about to lose it in front of his father.

They both had taken the hit of his mother’s “death” but why did it feel like Adrien was the only one who tried to actually be the person his mother wanted. He was frustrated at the selfish wishes. The fact that his father couldn’t be satisfied with just Adrien. Even when he finally understood there was no way to bring her back without ruining everything. Gabriel Agreste clung onto loose threads, trying to tie together something that wasn’t there.

It made Adrien angry sometimes. He didn’t know who he was anymore. Adrien Agreste was perfect, calm, always searching for the best answer. Cat Noir was fearless, loving, and carefree. He knew he had emotions - anger wasn’t something he  _ never  _ felt. It just wasn’t like this. Anger for him before was so wet, teary eyed, disappointment. Now it was dry and filled with so much exhaustion.

He was so tired. Staying in bed didn’t make him feel better. Getting out made him feel worse.

Maids peeked in once and awhile, but he never formed a relationship with them so they left him alone. Natalie had made him think that anyone and everyone could be a part of some scheme. He just wanted to be left alone. He wanted to trust people, but he couldn’t do it so easily now. So many lies that were right in his face day after day. 

It was eleven when he called Marinette. There was no particular reason behind it, but he wanted to hear her voice.

“Adrien? Is everything alright?”  
She must’ve just woken up and guilt sliced through his chest. He listened to her voice, the only familiar thing he still trusted sometimes. 

“Adrien?”

He tried to respond but it felt like there was so much weight on his chest. His eyes fluttered shut as he tried to piece himself together. She once again broke the silence, doing all of the talking

“I miss being with you sometimes. I’m sorry things have been so weird between us lately. I should be more honest with you if I expect you to do the same.”

He wanted her to be honest but not by force. Was he just a burden? He wanted them both to talk. He wanted to be there for her. 

“Marinette,” his throat was so dry it cracked on her name, “I’m sorry too.”

Marinette had paused and he listened to her breathing before she released a whisper of a chuckle, “What do you even have to be sorry about?”  
“I put so much pressure on you. You’re always trying to help me out no matter what.”

He finally said it. Slamming his eyes shut, he waited for her to shove him away. Sometimes it would be easier if she did that. 

“That’s my choice Adrien, you didn’t force it onto me.”  _ Lying. She’s lying to you. You’re burdening her.  _

“But we never talk about your problems.”

“We did recently,” Marinette mentioned, “Plus, there’s not much to talk about.”

_ “There’s plenty to talk about.” _

Marinette deflected the conversation, “Adrien, aren’t you in school right now?”

_ Did she want him to stop talking? Was he burdening her more?  _ His thoughts were a jumbled mess of doubt. He never had that much confidence and felt so raw right now. 

“You’re right, I should go.”

“What? That’s not what I said -”

He flopped back onto his stomach, letting his face sink into the pillow. Hot tears seared down his face as he suddenly felt so sick. He stayed alone like this for hours, desperate for some kind of release. For his pain to be more obvious to everyone else. He felt so weak. Worn out. Gone.

He eventually got out of bed. 

_ September 4th, 3:25 p.m. _

_ Gotham City, America _

Damian did not like being touched at all. Marinette knew this and so she stumbled back at her automatic collapse onto him. Embarrassment filled her up as she clamped her eyes shut and wobbled on her legs.  _ What on earth was she doing? _

“Marinette, what’s going on -” Damian started but an obnoxious voice came from the background. 

“Who’s at the door, demon spawn? Alfred must’ve let them in through the gate!”

“Shut up,” Damian hissed back just as loudly.

Marinette felt so sick, she wavered, her head tilted down. Was this really what Alix meant? She felt so unsure.

“Marinette? Seriously, do you feel okay, you look sick.”  
Damian bit down on his lip. He felt as though he was saying all of the wrong things. Marinette was clearly very affected by something. Hesitantly, he grasped onto her forearm lightly. Marinette uneasily looked up and followed him inside. 

“How long have you been out in the rain?”

Marinette blinked droplets out of her eyelashes, “What time is it?”

_ Goodness, her voice was so raw.  _ Marinette thought back to her intense drowsy sobbing. Heaving harshly under the guise of rain tears. It had all taken its impact on her.

“Seriously, who is it -”

The new person was staring at Marinette a little too openly, “Oh I’m so sorry.”

Marinette wanted to curl up and die. Here she was, dripping on a rug that was probably worth more than her parent’s bakery. Unable to cry, unable to process and had come to Damian Wayne of all people, someone she had only known for a month. She felt stupid. 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. I’ll -”

Jason Todd stared at the soaking figure of the only person seemed to actually like right now. “Should I go get Dick?”

Damian rolled his eyes, “No but go warn everyone. I’m going to take her up to my room, can you get Alfred?”

“Yeah. You do that, and keep her away from Bruce. I seriously do not want another sibling, especially if she gets along with you demon spawn.”

Marinette just stood awkwardly, her brows furrowed and her heart pounding. 

Jason narrowed his eyes at her and Marinette felt on the spotlight once again, “Not a single word of a tragic backstory to our father, okay? He’s a hot mess when it comes to kids who need help. It will make your life easier, I promise.”

“Is this really the best time for that?” Damian scolded, shoving Jason away.

“Does it look like I know how to react? A rain-soaked girl who happens to be the only person you talk to other than Jon is in our front entryway. I barely know how to handle myself. Nobody in this house understands emotions.”

Damian growled, finally getting Jason to walk away. He glanced back at Marinette who looked uncomfortable.

“Do you want to talk? We can go to my room?”  
Marinette frowned, so unsure of everything. Did she want to talk? Why did she come here? “Yeah.”

When Marinette was settled in his room on the floor beside his fireplace, she felt herself panicking.

Damian sat nearby, but not super close as if he didn’t want to push, “I don’t really know what you want, but do you want to tell me what happened?”

Marinette appreciated his bluntness. “Adrien is… is in the hospital. I think it’s my fault.”

Damian turned to her, watching her face twist in guilt, “I wasn’t there for him when he needed me.”

“Bullshit.”

Marinette buried her head into her knees, feeling another wave of panic. She started to choke on her sobs again, her body trying to compensate for the lack of tears. Why couldn’t she just cry? Why was she being so selfish and acting like she’s the victim? Why was she here?

Damian was not equipped for a sobbing girl in his bedroom. Jason was right, nobody in their family knew how to handle emotions. Dick Grayson was the best at it, but it would be wrong to bring a complete stranger into Marinette’s issues right now. 

He could relate to the guilt. How it consumed him when he was young. Maybe… maybe he could help.

His fingers brushed her shoulder, “Marinette, why do you think it’s your fault. I get that you weren’t there, but I’m guessing you don’t mean that literally.”

Marinette tried to hold in her awful sobs as she made sense out of the situation, “He tried to…” it felt wrong to tell him that so she let him fill in the blank, “and I knew he wasn’t happy. I could’ve stopped him. I wasn’t there for him enough. We weren’t talking like how we should've. He called me this morning and I just missed it entirely.”

“You can’t possibly expect yourself to fix his entire life, can you?”

Marinette’s watery eyes peered at him and he understood.  _ She really thought she could.  _

“Look. The only way for a person to properly deal with things is by themselves. Therapists don’t just fix people, they tell them what to do and how to fix themselves. You’re not even a therapist, Marinette. Adrien wasn’t feeling that way because of you, it was because of himself. The signs are something you can just see.”

“But -”

_“No._ How much pressure have you been putting on yourself? Are you sure that you’re okay? How can you expect to fix someone else when you’re not there yourself?”  
“I’m fine! I’m not the one who tried to take -”

“That doesn’t mean you’re okay.”  
Marinette fell into a silence, her sobs gone. She stared blankly at the fire, “I want him to be okay. I forced him to continue living a couple months ago, but now it feels like he’s just barely there sometimes.”

Damian crept slightly closer, “Tell me about him?”

“He - uh - he is someone basically perfect. I know he hates that word though, because it used to trap him. Adrien is so compassionate and sees the best in others constantly. He just wants everyone to feel okay. He was a protector, and I was so lucky to get to know someone like him. I always was more headstrong and opinionated, but Adrien would study and understand every corner and crease in everyone. He always stuck by what was right. I admire him so much. He’s family, a brother, my best friend.”

“Clearly you don't have siblings,” Damian commented quietly. 

“Oh trust me, he can be frustrating. He doesn’t know when the right time is for a joke, and is persistent on everything.”

Marinette laughed silently before she felt her tears drip down her face. Closing her eyes, she focused her attention on them. How they rolled down her cheek and neck. Hitting the collar of her shirt or the palm of her hand. 

Her voice was so quiet, “I haven’t cried in three years.”

She just wanted him to be okay. She just wanted Adrien to be beside her. On the phone, or hell, even through an akuma attack. It was always Cat Noir and Ladybug. Even though they no longer appeared to the public, she needed her partner. She needed Adrien. 

They stared at the fire together, falling into the silence that Marinette liked.

Damian stood up slowly, leaving the room and coming back with a towel. Heading towards his dresser, he glanced into the bottom for a hoodie. He could probably find some clothes in Cass’ bedroom that would fit Marinette, but he didn’t want to ask. A hoodie would be fine.

He handed them silently to Marinette and pointed her to the bathroom. Nodding, Marinette took them with a soft thank you. Sighing, he watched her go before settling his head back on the side of the couch. 

Alfred knocked on his door seconds later, his hands holding a tray with two mugs. Sniffing the air, Damian smiled faintly. Hot chocolate.   
“Do you have cinnamon?”

Alfred smiled slightly at the question, letting Damian take the tray, “I can bring that to you Master Damian. Where’s Miss Marinette?”

“She’s changing. She was soaked from the rain.”

“Alright then. I’ll be back with the cinnamon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cinnamon ;)


	17. The Hoodie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We have another sad chapter but character development is laced in. :)

_ September 4th, 4:57 p.m. _

Marinette finally exited the bathroom, her frame drowned in Damian’s hoodie. Hoodies were always a comfort item, seeing as she mostly tried to dress to impress. She felt tired now, her eyelids heavy. Leaning against the door frame, her eyes met with Damian and she watched him study her.

“Are you feeling better?”

Marinette nodded, “Thank you. You seriously didn’t have to do all of this and I wouldn’t have blamed you or anything.”

Damian rolled his eyes and held up a mug,  _ “Chocolat chaud?” _

Marinette felt her lips curl up weakly,  _ “S’il te plait.” _

She settled near Damian and wrapped her fingers around the mug, letting out a long sigh. She didn’t even want to think about her patrol in a couple hours or the homework she had to do. Or the clothes she had to finish.  _ Oh goodness, she was so screwed. All she wanted to do was curl up and weep a bit longer. _

“You’re making a face.”

Marinette glanced at Damian with annoyance still prominent on her face, “I have so much stuff to do when I get home and I just want to see Adrien. But I can’t. I’m going to have to wait until Christmas break probably. I just want to be there right now.”

Damian grimaced. 

“Yeah,” Marinette exhaled, before taking a long sip of her drink, “but I can’t just leave anyways. I have responsibilities or else me coming here would be all for nothing.”

She’d probably visit him at an odd hour, when visitation is no longer allowed. She could teleport there with Kaalki. She wasn’t supposed to use the miraculous for anything other than hero duty, but she honestly didn’t care just this once. Some rules should be broken. 

Damian studied her once more. “Marinette, do you… do you want a hug?”

His cheeks burned but he tried to hide it the best he could. Everyone knew he hated physical contact so offering it willingly was a big deal for him. And he was expecting to be rejected. 

Marinette placed her hot chocolate down, her eyes wide with worry, “Are you sure?”  
Damian rolled his eyes, “Like I’d do anything against my will.”

“Pfft,” Marinette scooted closer and threw her arm gently over his shoulder farthest from her. She let her head sink into the curve of his neck and shoulder and inhaled quietly, her body relaxing. Her other hand gripped on his sleeve.

Damian wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her closer into him. He just listened to her as tears began to spill again. 

They both said nothing. 

Marinette broke the silence once more,  _ “Merci, beau ange.” _

_ Thank you, beautiful angel.  _ Damian flushed once more, his heart thrumming in his chest. Marinette pulled away and gently wiped her eyes with the hoodie sleeve. She resettled in the spot next to him, her body heat still burning his skin. Knees touching, Marinette looked around, and pulled out her phone.

She called a number,  _ “Kagami? Qu’est-ce tu fais?” _

Damian translated in his head:  _ Kagami? What are you doing? _

“We all came to the hospital. Luka and Chloé are here too.”

Marinette nodded,  _ “Comment est il?” _

_How is he?_ _  
_ “He’s in stable condition. He’s going to live.”

Marinette felt her shoulders slump forward in relief,  _ “Dieu merci.” _

_ Thank god.  _ Damian felt his own shoulders slump too, figuring that meant that Adrien was going to be fine.

“How are you, Marinette?” Kagami asked softly.

Marinette sighed, “ _ Je me sens mieux. Un ami m'a aidé. Merci, Kagami. Je dois y aller. Au revoir.” _

_ I’m feeling better. A friend helped me. Thank you, Kagami. I have to go, bye. _

“Bye Marinette,” Kagami replied back sweetly. 

“Is he going to be fine then?” Damian asked, tilting his head to the side like a puppy.

Marinette nodded, “I forgot you could speak french.”

“I speak English, Arabic, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Urdu, Russian, Morse code and sign language and those are just a few.”

Marinette furrowed her brows, “What the hell? How the fuck do you know how to speak those languages? Fluently?”

“You sound so doubtful,” Damian clicked his tongue, “I’m a genius.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, “I don’t even speak Mandarin and I have plenty of family that mostly speaks just that. You make me feel like I’ve done absolutely nothing, you perfect specimen.”  
“Far from perfect.”  
“You have yet to prove that,” Marinette sighed, drinking more of her hot chocolate. “Is the rest of your family like that?”

“They’re a little less fortunate in the brain cell department.”

Marinette chuckled, and he was happy to get a positive reaction from her. “Somehow I doubt that seeing how two of them are CEO’s of a multi-million dollar company, but sure.”

The door opened and Alfred came in to collect the hot chocolate cups. Marinette complimented his hot chocolate and thanked him generously about making them. Whilst doing her thing, Titus, snuck in and laid his head on her lap.

Marinette automatically cooed at the dog and petted his head. Her head slowly fell onto Damian’s shoulder and she exhaled. “I probably should go soon.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

Marinette closed her eyes, “I think so.”

“You can call me at any time.”

“Thank you, Angel.”

He was never going to get used to that nickname. He hated demon spawn, but even when she said it teasingly, he didn’t mind it as much. But now she was consistently calling him angel and it made him flustered. 

“Alfred can drive you back... the rain still hasn’t let up yet.”

Marinette shifted her head to see out the window. She groaned, shifting her head back, “That’s so annoying.”

  
They talked among themselves for a couple more minutes before Marinette gave in and collected her wet clothes and book bag. Damian walked her downstairs where the infamous Bruce Wayne waited for them. Looking down at her like that made her gut fill with anxiety. He had only really met her once and now here she was, at his house, with tear stains on his son’s hoodie and a pile of wet clothes in her hands. Run. _Run._

“Miss Dupain-Cheng? Are you feeling alright? I heard that you had come here dripping wet.”

Marinette shifted her weight from foot to foot,  _ oh this was a new level of embarrassing,  _ “Yeah. My friend, Adrien, was admitted into a hospital in a severe condition a couple hours ago. I sort of came here? I’m really sorry about any inconvenience.”

Damian glared steadily at his father, as if waiting for an insensitive input, “Now Alfred’s taking her home so she can rest.”

“I’m sorry that happened, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Do rest well.”

“Thank you.”

Damian still kept his eyes on his father, narrowed and suspicious as he guided Marinette out front so she could go home. Bruce rolled his eyes, and proceeded to head to his office.

Marinette entered the car with a final appreciative gaze at Damian. 

_When did I stop leaning on people?_ She wondered thoughtfully. Even though she was embarrassed, she really appreciated it. And Damian actually didn’t seem to mind as far as she was aware. He didn’t mind, right? What if she overstepped boundaries?  
_Like I’d do anything against my will._

She relaxed slightly. This is what Bunnix meant. How would it impact the future? Her mind was so curious.

_ September 4th, 11:34 p.m. _

Marinette had just barely gotten through two homework assignments and did a bit of work on her clothes before she had to go back onto patrol. Now in her leather outfit, she was grateful her mask hid her tired eyes. She couldn’t go see Adrien and this would have been the best time to do so. She had only one more conversation with Kagami via text.

Robin was eyeing her as if he knew how horrible she was feeling. Judgment had not started any conversations and kept her eyes steady. Patrols lasted so long and she had so much to do. She was only going to get three hours of sleep tops.

The night air was like ice running down her back. They had a couple of minor crimes here and there but nothing urgent had happened yet. 

“So are you ever going to tell me why you’re paired up with me,” Judgement asked, twisting her boomerang as she peered below.

Robin huffed, “I thought you would’ve figured it out by now.”

“That you’re my babysitter but are close enough to my age to make it seem like it’s not that?”

“Yeah, that’s about right.”

Judgement stretched her arms, “I don’t need a babysitter. I may be a new hero, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t done this before. I have been doing this for three years now, and with only a single partner. I can handle myself. Appreciate the company though.”

“I’m sure I’m great company.”

“A pleasure,” Judgement snickered, her eyes coating over him. Now that she was almost a hundred percent sure it was Damian, it was hard to remember that he didn’t know she was Marinette, “But you don’t seem to like having a partner that much either.”

“I’m a trained assassin.”

Judgement exhaled slowly, “You’re kidding.”

“I grew up in the league. I had killed plenty of people by age ten.”

Judgement pressed her back against a building, “You didn’t strike me as the type to open up easily. Why are you telling me this?”

“For some reason, I feel like you can relate.”

Judgement squatted down, her eyes glazing over. “I know it sounds stupid...but I am going to take a life soon. It’s not really in my control, even though saying it like that doesn’t make sense. The person is...well, they aren’t a good person, but I still feel uncomfortable knowing I’m going to have blood under my fingernails. But sometimes I feel like I already have some of that. Accidental deaths that weren’t necessarily directly from me.”

Robin sat down beside her, keeping a suitable distance between them, “For me, the guilt came several years after for a lot of the deaths. I didn’t regret them because they weren’t good people, but I knew that I wasn’t ever going to fully be a hero. Batman had to remind me  _ justice not vengeance  _ over and over but my mind was just wired differently.”

“I don’t think it’s your fault,” Judgement pressed her lips together, “When you’re born into things, change is hard, I assume.”

Damian Wayne was a trained assassin. Just how the hell did he get here? Judgement had so many questions but she kept them to herself. The day had been long and exhausting and she really was not feeling super comfortable right then.

They both got back up and continued to patrol. Soon she could go back, transforming into Marinette. By the time she finished her order and had done all of her homework it was four in the morning. Feeling her body tighten up, she headed to her bed, collapsing into the sheets. Closing her eyes tight, she wrapped her arms around herself and breathed in Damian’s hoodie’s scent.

She didn’t really go to sleep that night. She continuously thought about the final battle. Gabriel Agreste had the miraculous, and placed them on himself. In a strike of gold, his body floated up into the air, his suit turning black. Eyes lit up with power, he stared down at a frozen Marinette and a crumbled Adrien. They both refused to give in though and Marinette shouted out.

_ “There’s going to be a consequence!” _

_ “I can take it all! I’ll start a new timeline, where Adrien and my wife can all be a family together!” _

Adrien was passed out. His body was strewn over many boulders the akuma had thrown. Marinette always had luck on her side, but it meant that it had to play out this way. Her heart shattered at the image of her once crush being defeated by his father. Child abuse.

_ “If you care about Adrien, why are you hurting him!” _

Gabriel glided towards her,  _ “There will always be a new Adrien.” _

Her blood boiled,  _ “Why can’t you just love the one you have! You’re consumed with selfish wishes and it will only end badly. Stop, please!” _

His body shook as a wish consumed him. She watched as Miss Agreste arose from her containment, a weepy Gabriel throwing his arms around her. Marinette sank to her knees, her eyes flitting to Adrien. Noting that he wasn’t even shaking, she went to him.

Pressing her fingers in the place beneath his jaw, she felt for a heart beat. She pushed them in deeper, her fingers desperate for the thrum.  _ Nothing. _

Adrien had died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah we're getting closer to better times. Thank goodness, I want to write fluff if you couldn't tell by the whole hoodie thing.  
> :P


	18. The Black Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, this chapter is not to hate towards black coffee drinkers - I swearrr. I thought it was funny. This chapter is really light compared to the most recent chapters so enjoy :)

_ September 5th, _

_ 5:08 p.m., Gotham City, America _

_ 11:08 p.m., Paris, France _

Marinette wasn’t supposed to use the miraculous for personal problems but she could care less. Her heart was stumbling all over the place as she transformed into Judgment.  _ What if Adrien didn’t want to see her?  _ She sort of hoped he was asleep. She just wanted to see him, see him breathe.e

Her mind went crazy as she thought carefully about Adrien. Kagami had sent an address but she wasn’t Max - she didn’t just know coordinates. Instead, it could teleport her to anyone or anyplace if she visualized it. Her eyes fluttered shut. Fluffy blond hair and bright green eyes were all she could see. When she reopened them, a neon portal was waiting.

Sighing quietly, she stepped in. Closing it when she was done, she studied the room. No cameras.  _ Fantastic.  _ She didn’t de-transform - no time limit since she hit age sixteen. 

The room was plain. A curtain showed a large window. An uncomfortable looking bed. A couple of more uncomfortable looking chairs. Her eyes settled on him.

Adrien looked so tired too. Dark bags had settled under his eyes and her own flickered to the white bandages around his wrists. A whimper left her lips before tears spilled down her cheeks. He was dead asleep, tubes all up in his mouth, but the monitor beside him told her all she needed.  _ He was alive.  _ She felt like she wasn’t fully there, standing in the corner of his hospital room. Then she closed her eyes, and formed a new portal.

_ September 8th, 7:16 a.m. _

Marinette had gone to school the day after Adrien’s incident, but she had barely been there fully. Now that she had a whole entire weekend to constantly check on Adrien in the hospital - when he was asleep, because she wasn’t quite ready for the conversation that was going to have to happen - and crying, she would actually be fully there for school.

She was still exhausted though. A cup of her lovely green tea was sitting in her hands and she was silently going over her homework. Damian slipped into the spot next to her and nudged her softly with his shoulder.

“How are you today?”

Marinette tilted her head with a weak smile, “I’m better. Adrien’s in stable condition still and he should be released from the hospital soon. I’m feeling a little less numb. Thank you again, what you did for me was beyond kind.”

Marinette shuffled, digging her hands into her book bag as Damian scratched the back of his neck, “It wasn’t that amazing.”

Marinette huffed with a roll of her eyes, “You seriously are an angel. I don’t know how you think that wasn’t the kindest thing someone has ever done for me.” 

In her hands was a folded piece of cloth that he realized was the hoodie he lent her, “I washed it. Thank you so much for giving it to me. I forgot to return it on Friday.”

Damian shrugged, taking the hoodie and placing it into his bag, “Thanks.”

Marinette proceeded to open her sketchbook and work on another commission. She had gotten the unfinished ones done and shipped, but then proceeded to get two more over the weekend. 

“I forgot you ran a business,” Damian murmured, peering over her shoulder once more. He had seen plenty of her sketches and knew she was into fashion, but he forgot she actually did sell her items.

Marinette shrugged, “I’m trying to get my name out there and this is a way to do so. I have to limit the amount of commissions I get though because it’s too much. After my design was on an Agreste fashion show, plenty of people were interested when I released my online shop. However, it was only through other people talking about the pieces I made for them that gave me a boost.”

“Aren’t you stressing yourself out?”  
Marinette pursed her lips, “I enjoy fashion plenty. It’s not _that_ stressful -” this was a straight up lie because Marinette had cried many times over her commissions - “and I sort of have to make up for lost time. I got an offer three years ago to go fully into fashion design in New York but I declined.”

“Why?” Damian was now becoming more and more intrigued. Her pieces had been on a runway and she had an offer to go to New York and officially become a designer. 

Marinette set her pencil down, “The offer… while it was sincere, it would’ve really hurt someone. Their mom had chosen me over them to go to New York with, and treated me like I was their own child - ignoring their real one. I couldn’t - I couldn’t do that to someone. Plus, I had other more important things that kept me tethered to Paris. I wanted to take it, but it just wasn’t the right thing to do back then. I had to let go of my own interests.”

Damian narrowed his eyes, “So you gave up the opportunity of a lifetime to not hurt someone.”

“I mean, I guess so?”

Damian sighed, “Yeah, and  _ I’m  _ the angel.”

Marinette pouted, “People would’ve been upset with me if I took it. I felt pressured to stay in Paris, and I knew I would feel guilty if I went.”

“You shouldn’t feel guilty about pursuing something you love.”

“Look, it’s fine. I can still be a fashion designer, and I did everything I had to do in Paris.”

Damian stayed quiet. It didn’t seem fair that Marinette had to put herself second to someone else’s feelings and responsibilities, but he understood. At least, he was trying to.

“Do you want to come over again?” Damian asked.

Marinette grinned, though it looked slightly forced, “I’d love that. After school?”

“Yeah. I’ll meet you in the courtyard and Alfred can drive us.”  
Soon, class started.

_ September 8th, 2:23 p.m. _

Marinette had wordlessly followed Damian into his fancy car. She greeted Alfred softly, but a sense of awkwardness had fallen over her. The last time she had seen Alfred, or the mansion, she had come to their home sobbing. What a great impression to leave. She fidgeted.

Damian noticed this, but made no comment.

When they had entered the mansion, Damian led her to the kitchen. She gazed around it with surprise over her face. “What are we doing here?”

“We are going to bake something.”

Marinette bit her lip in surprise, “Really? Are you good at baking?”

“I’m suitable to work with,” Damian said, pulling out some supplies for what they were baking. “I was thinking we could do a pastry you’re familiar with and you could guide us through it.”

Marinette smiled, her heart skipping excitedly. “So something I’ve made before? What did you pick?”

“Croissants, of course,” Damian rolled his eyes.

“Okay, so we have butter, flour, yeast, sugar, salt and milk, right?”  
“Yes,” Damian focused his attention on Marinette as she sifted through the ingredients with an appraising smile. 

“I hate to break this to you, but we probably can’t do this in one day,” Marinette commented, her eyes flickering around as she tried to recall everything from memory. It wasn’t too hard, she had made them dozens of times whenever she helped out at the bakery. “Do you have a mixer?”

Damian nodded, pulling out the equipment from a cabinet. 

“Also, is Alfred okay with this?”

“Yes. Come on, let’s get started.”

Marinette shrugged, tapping her fingers on the measuring cups before unwrapping the stick of butter and dumping it into the bowl. Then she measured the flour and dumped it in. Damian and Marinette repeated this step until they had all of the ingredients into the mixer. Once the dry ingredients were mixed into the butter, she slowly poured in the cold milk. 

She found a pan and placed the dough on it. Patting it with flour, she flicked some at Damian who scoffed. She formed a nice rectangular shaped clump on it before wrapping it up and placing it into the refrigerator.

Marinette snickered at the clumps of flour that were still on his face, “You missed a spot.”

Raising her finger to his jaw, she wiped the smear off. Damian tensed up, staring at her wordlessly. Marinette turned back around and began to clean up.

“We have to let it chill for like thirty minutes, so what do you want to do?”

Still a little bit shocked, he took a bit of a pause before answering, “We could make tea and talk. You like green tea right? We probably have some.”

Marinette smiled, “Yeah, I’m surprised you remember. I drink it way too much, but it’s really good and has a good amount of caffeine.”

“It suits you.”

“Hmm, I guess so. What’s your favorite - and please do not say black coffee or I will leave.”

Damian gasped in mock surprise, “You have a vendetta against black coffee?” Damian clicked his tongue, “I’m stunned. I don’t know, chai mixed with vanilla coffee is good.”

“Black coffee is just  _ bad.  _ People only like it because they think it makes them look cool. You have definitely drank it at some point, but at least you don’t anymore.”

Damian huffed, “Yes I did. It’s awful. My father drinks it still, I’m pretty sure. And sometimes Tim does too. But he drinks an inhumane amount of caffeinated drinks.”

“Oh shit,” Marinette cursed, “Never mind. I take it back. Don’t tell your father I said that.”

“I most certainly will,” Damian smirked.  
Marinette sighed but didn’t argue further. Instead, Marinette used a coffee machine for the water and Damian got out two mugs. When there was hot water in both, she plopped in two bags of green tea and hummed as the minutes passed by.

“I haven’t gotten to bake with someone in awhile. I used to do this with Adrien, but he was a hot mess in the kitchen. We always ended up with flour and something having gone wrong. Poor child couldn’t figure out the difference between sugar and salt half of the time.”

Damian snickered, “So did you prefer to bake with him?”

Marinette shrugged, “Not if I wanted to bake seriously. It was just different, to be honest.”

Pulling out the tea bags, Marinette put a little bit of sugar in hers while Damian began to drink the hot beverage. It was really good, and she managed to take note of the brand so she could get some for herself.

“I feel like this would be good with honey too,” Marinette mumbled, pulling out her phone and typing it in her notes.

Marinette studied Damian, “So what do you do for fun?”

Damian blew slightly on his drink, before shrugging, “Not much to be honest.”

Marinette hummed.

“What?”

She giggled, “It just isn’t that surprising. You seem a little bit too serious for random things.”  
“That’s unfair. What do you do? You barely seem to have fun yourself.”  
“Fashion is fun,” Marinette sipped her drink again.

“It’s a job at this point. Are you trying to tell me something?”  
Marinette puffed, “What? _Never.”_

“Oh you’re definitely testing me. What are you trying to do?”

“To have fun,” Marinette winked before placing her tea down. “I bet you haven’t had any fun in your entire life.”

Damian narrowed his eyes before lunging for her. Giggles spilled from Marinette’s mouth before she darted out of the kitchen. Remembering carefully where the front door was, she pushed forward and exited out of the house. 

Damian was surprised by how fast she was. It was too familiar to put it on a back burner but he did anyway. Chasing after Marinette, he watched her pause to look for him. Their eyes met and she grinned before darting toward him.

Soon they were face to face and Damian tried to grab her waist to pin her down, but she easily dodged. He realized he was actually going to have to try to win, even though he didn’t know what exactly he was winning. Maybe this was a good distraction for Marinette, so he allowed it.

Her hands reached out to his shoulders to try to push him but he dodged. Marinette giggled slightly before walking backwards.

“What are we trying to do?”  
“I don’t know?” Marinette hummed, “But I want to win?”

Damian huffed but lunged for her once more. She stumbled back before grabbing onto his wrist and flipping their positions. Lunging for him once more, she pushed on his shoulders slightly and Damian stumbled. He expected to fall onto the ground but instead he landed on the edge of something before water dripped down his face. 

“Oh! Crap, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Marinette bent down, offering her hand. Damian shrugged and got off of the fountain.

“I think you won?” Damian hummed.

“Are you okay?’

Marinette grabbed his wrists again and tilted her head down to stare at the scratches that came from stopping himself. He felt himself go hot once more before calmly realizing something.

_ I like Marinette. _

He supposed it should’ve been more obvious but this was the first time he really recognized how his heart stumbled slightly.

Running a hand through his wet hair, Marinette peered up at him, “Are you okay?”

“Yes Marinette. I am okay,” Damian rolled his eyes, “My hair is wet and my hands are scratched but I’m half-way sure I’ll live.”

Marinette narrowed her eyes, “I don’t need your cheekiness, Monsieur Wayne. Come on, we can go back to the kitchen and I’ll clean your hands up. 

He followed her, a tint of pink still lingering on his cheeks. When they reached the kitchen, Marinette found a towel and wet it. Brushing some hair out of her face, she tapped it gently on the marks that were still on his skin. She wiped the scratches clean. 

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to amputate your hands off,” Marinette wistfully sighed.

Damian huffed, “It’s all your fault.”

Marinette pouted before cleaning up their tea cups, “The dough is probably ready for the first roll out. Then we’ll have to stop for today.”  
Damian got out another towel and ruffled it through his hair. Marinette grabbed the dough and grabbed a measuring tape. She slowly rolled it out as she stared at Damian, “Your hair looks really good.”

His brows furrowed but a smile fell on his lips, “Thank you. I still prefer the gel though.”

Marinette snickered, “Yeah, I can tell. It suits you, like how green tea suits me.”

When she finally got it to the right size and in a mostly rectangular shape, she put it back in to chill, “Wow, some kind of baker you are. I’m doing all of the work, and now we have to stop for today.”

“Why is your butter in the fridge,” Marinette asked, grabbing a stick, “We have to let it soften for tomorrow.”

Damian shrugged, “It preserves it better.”

“Americans,” Marinette sighed, placing the butter beside the fridge and calmly sat down beside Damian. “Thanks for having me over again, Angel.”

“Your welcome,” Damian tilted his head at her, “I guess it was fun to chase you, but you’re somehow really surprisingly fast and strong.”

Marinette grinned, like she knew something he didn’t, “I’m full of surprises.”

Someone else entered the kitchen then, and Marinette stiffened when she saw it was Bruce Wayne. Blinking when he noticed them, Bruce Wayne shrugged and headed to the cabinet.

“Nice to see you again Miss Dupain-Cheng. I’m glad to see you’re not crying this time.”  
Marinette spluttered, coughing into her arm. Damian glared strongly at his father’s back at the insensitivity but it wasn’t exactly shocking. Soon Jason entered the kitchen as well and noticed the tense air.

“Marinette,” Jason narrowed his eyes at her, “He saw you yesterday. You failed me. You just barely weren’t adopted because you actually have parents.”

Marinette bit her lip, “Sorry? He caught me off guard. I didn’t think you were being serious.”

Bruce Wayne rolled his eyes and Marinette shifted slightly, “He wasn’t. He thinks I adopt every single traumatic child.  _ Uh,  _ not that you’re traumatic?”

“Way to call us out,” Jason bit out, his eyes meeting Damian. Damian shook his head,  _ no she didn’t know anything.  _

“I should probably go soon,” Marinette stumbled over her words slightly, “I have homework and work to do before I -”  
She hummed slightly to cover up her misstep of words. 

“Damian has things to do as well,” Bruce Wayne commented, brewing some sort of drink. Her eyes widened when she realized he did drink black coffee.

_ Yeah, I take it back. Bruce Wayne could actually ruin my life, I am not going to criticize his taste in coffee - no matter how terrible it is.  _

Damian seemed to notice this but hid his grin. “I’ll walk you out Marinette.”

Both Bruce Wayne and Jason froze, thinking the same thing.  _ He called her by her first name? _

_ This was actually really shocking, but it was the first time Damian had invited someone over.  _

Marinette nodded and scooped up her bag in a corner, “Thanks for having me. Sorry about last time.”

They watched her leave. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me Bruce Wayne wouldn't drink black coffee. I also can imagine a ten year old Damian Wayne sipping on a cup and pretending to like it or even actually enjoying it.  
> :)


	19. The Baked Goods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another lighter chapter <3  
> I just figured out where I was taking the next few chapters, and something interesting is going to happen in the chapter after next, so get excited. :)

_ September 9th, 2:41 p.m. _

“Oh you actually did a really good job!” Marinette complimented, studying the dough carefully. She had called Damian last night with instructions on adding butter into the croissant dough before chilling it again. He had done everything flawlessly - which she should’ve expected - but surprise still showed up in her voice.

“Is that a lack of faith I’m feeling?” Damian crossed his arms.

Marinette hummed,  _ “Never,” _

After Damian realized his feelings for Marinette he became somehow more aware of her presence. 

She lightly dusted her hands with flour and patted some down onto the counter top. Sprinkling more of it on the dough, she plopped it on the flour. She rolled it out calmly as Damian watched her.

Marinette was extremely pretty. Her black hair was pulled up into it’s usual ponytail - indigo highlights shining under the fluorescent lighting. The closer he looked, the more he noticed the freckles that most collected on the bridge of her nose. Ocean blue eyes. A petite frame. She appeared fragile but held herself sturdily. 

“Okay it’s now in an eight by twenty rectangle. Do you have a pizza cutter?”

Damian nodded, bringing her the tool. Marinette cut it into eight parts, humming quietly. Then she divided each one into two triangles. “Help me stretch them? They need to be eight inches long.”

Marinette showed him how to do it and Damian meticulously followed her motions to perfection. She gave him a cute smile. Then they rolled the dough into croissants and Marinette told him how they were going to wait two more hours before baking.

“This takes so much time,” Damian grumbled.

Marinette shrugged, “In the bakery we usually have rounds. That way we’re making many at one time.”

“Do you miss your family?”

“Of course,” Marinette said, “I love my parents. I miss going home to a warm bakery and always smelling vanilla. It’s just something that reminds me of them. But I speak with them almost every night and I know they’re doing fine and are safe. I don’t have to worry about akumas anymore - or at least, I don’t think I do. Crime rates are pretty low right now. I try to not over stress myself about it.”

“Sounds like you did anyway.”

Marinette pouted, “Don’t call me out like that.”

“Hey, Damian, Kori is coming home and will be here in an hour or so,” Dick peeped into the kitchen, not surprised when he saw Marinette there. “I’ve already told her that we have a guest.”

“You’re extremely excited, I’m assuming?”

“Yeah, I miss her and Mar’i.” Dick scratched the back of his neck, “Kori is my wife, by the way, Marinette. And Mar’i is my daughter.”  
Marinette smiled, “Will I get to meet them?”

“Probably, seeing as Damian invites you here with no warning all of the time.”

Marinette scrunched up her face, “I’m really sorry. I can stop, if you’d like.”  
“Trust me, you’re not the problem. Damian usually tells us weeks in advance if someone is coming over so we can get the manor ready, but not with you.”

“Alright,” Damian hissed, “That’s enough.”  
It was true though, Damian usually liked to give the house plenty of time to hide weapons and anything that screamed vigilante. Perhaps he trusted Marinette unknowingly, or maybe he didn’t really mind her knowing. He probably should’ve given them more warning though. Marinette didn’t appear to have figured it out.

Dick shrugged and was about to leave before he saw the unbaked croissants, “Did you guys make those?”  
“Yeah,” Marinette smiled, “I wouldn’t mind giving some to your family, if you want them?”

Dick grinned, “Okay, never mind, invite Marinette any time.”  
“That was easy.”

Damian and Marinette fell into easy conversation once Dick left. Soon the first hour had passed and Marinette moved the croissants into the fridge. They had heard the door open but Damian didn’t gesture for them to go meet Dick’s family, so Marinette decided to ignore it for the most part. She had actually been curious about meeting Kori, but she could wait.

“Hey, I was wondering if we could just do homework for awhile?” Marinette asked, a blush rising on her cheeks. She felt a bit lame for asking, but she wanted to have one less thing to work on that night so she could work on commissions.

“That’s fine with me,” Damian picked up their bags that they left in a corner of the kitchen. He guided her upstairs to his room and they settled in front of the fireplace again. 

He felt relaxed in her vicinity. Marinette was perfectly happy with coming over and doing basically nothing, and to be honest, Damian preferred this. She had her laptop pulled up into her lap and she typed out a second draft for their English essay. Sometimes she would mumble halfheartedly in french but Damian didn’t focus long enough to pick up anything.

Marinette let out a sigh, leaning back, “Thanks for this. I would’ve had to push off homework for a while and wouldn’t have been able to finish up a couple of my commissions.”

“Any notable commissions?”

“I have a cocktail dress to make. The customer was actually pretty descriptive about what they wanted but they really seemed to like quite a bit of my concept designs when I sent them in. She already picked out one and now I’m working on the final sketch before I begin making it. I think it’s a dress for someone who’s about to get engaged,” Marinette rolled her shoulder back, “I spent a couple hours on it last night. I have to go buy the materials later but it should be a lot of fun to make. I like having a bit of backstory when I work on commissions, it makes them more special.”

“How did you get into fashion?”  
Marinette brushed some hair out of her face, “I don’t think there was a particular moment, more like a cluster of ideas. I had always been into art and expressing myself but no way seemed to really suit me. I liked drawing well enough and I was good at quite a few art forms - except dancing, I’m a tragic dancer - but my eyes kept on getting caught on the fashion industry,” Marinette faintly smiled, “I loved looking at the outfits in cartoons and would dress up like the characters the best I could. I really enjoy my cosplay commissions, by the way, they feel nostalgic and fun - plus I usually watch the show for inspiration so that’s also always fun.

“When I started to dress myself, I found I liked putting outfits together. Soon I had bought my first fashion magazine and I got so inspired that I just sketched out a couple of designs. I met a couple of people and learned tips from them and YouTube, and soon I had a couple of my own creations. Eventually, there was a competition at school and I designed a derby hat - an interesting request to say the least. My friend now, wasn’t exactly my friend back then and she copied my design. But I had handmade mine and embroidered my name in the ribbon upside down and I had won. It got featured in fashion magazines and on a runway. 

“I,” Marinette paused, shifting in her spot, “I am still improving and learning but I hope i can go to a design school for college and pursue it as an actual career.”

Damian gave her a faint grin, making Marinette smile back, “I don’t think you have much to worry about. You already got a request to go to New York with a famous designer.”  
Marinette crossed her arms, “Now you know plenty about me. I want to know more about you. What are your hobbies? For real this time.”

Damian rolled his eyes at the memory from yesterday. He had basically dodged the question but now he probably should answer, “I like drawing as well. Painting sometimes, but it’s a bit messy and tests my patience a bit too much. I do actually just like learning languages in general, and the cultures that come with them. I volunteer a lot at shelters for animals, because animals are the only thing keeping me from losing my mind sometimes - my siblings are a pain, particularly my brothers. I exercise a lot, read a lot. Not that much to me.”

Marinette snorted, “Sure,” she leaned forward slightly, “I think there’s plenty to you. You seem like a genuine person, and I really admire that. If you ever feel up to it, I would never say no to seeing one of your drawings.”

“Maybe someday.”

Marinette could hardly name another person who was a trained assassin, vigilante, vegetarian and artist all in one. Despite his past, Marinette had no doubts about the person she was spending most of her time with. He had proven himself in more ways than one.

Plus, it wasn’t like she didn’t have blood on her hands. Her stomach clenched up and she had to breathe in quietly, exhaling out built up anxiety. Pushing her laptop off of her legs, she stood up. 

“I think we can actually bake the croissants now, if you want to come.”

They headed back to the kitchen. Marinette brushed the rolls with egg wash before shoving them in the oven with a proud smile. 

“How long does it take to bake them?”

“Twenty minutes,” Marinette replied, looking over her shoulder at Damian. “I hope that everyone likes them, we made quite a few.”

Marinette bit on her lip, appearing lost in thought. Damian moved closer, “What are you thinking about?”

“Oh!” Marinette turned her head toward him, “I feel awful for asking but eh, I was wondering if we could possibly…? After the croissants are done…”  
Damian raised a brow, “If we could…?”

“Go back out into the garden? I sort of wanted to sketch some designs when I was last here but I didn’t want to be rude, and of course if it’s rude I don’t have to. It just gave me a lot of inspiration and I have my sketchbook but it’s not necessary for us to go -”

“Yes, we can go into the gardens,” Damian huffed, “I swear, you looked like you were about to ask me if we could go sacrifice our souls or something.”

Marinette flinched, “Yeah, let’s save that for later.”

Damian let out a breathless chuckle, “You don’t have to be so anxious over that. You’ve come over to my house a lot of times now.”  
“Yeah… it just feels weird to sketch things based on someone’s house, but the manor is really so pretty.”  
“When I came here, I tore apart the gardens.”

Marinette’s jaw dropped,  _ “You did not.” _

Damian shrugged, “I was mad.”

Marinette snickered, “I cannot believe you would destroy such beautiful gardens. Do you usually destroy things when you’re unhappy.”

“Used to. I'm a little less temperamental now.”  
Soon the croissants were ready and their warm scent had flooded the room. Marinette placed the tray on the counter top and picked a pretty plate to display their creation on. They both picked up one and tapped them together like shot glasses before sinking their teeth in.

“So good!”

Damian had a cunning smile on his lips, “Are you sure it doesn’t need hot chocolate to go with them?”

“Are you making fun of me. If I remember correctly, Monsieur Wayne, you dunked your croissant in hot chocolate as well.”

“It was nothing. Peer pressure forced me into it. Someone else’s poor taste.”  
“You never do anything that you don’t want to do,” Marinette had won the argument. “Sorry Angel. Here, I’m going to go take these to Madame Grayson and their daughter, if that’s alright?”

Damian watched as she picked up the plate and almost immediately lost all of the croissants. Catching her, he grinned. He supported her back with one hand and the plate with another, feeling her curl into his chest.

“I don’t know how you even just tripped.”  
“I’m madly clumsy, don’t judge me.”

They eventually ended up in the living room where Dick and Koriand’r were curled up together. A small being with dark hair and iridescent green eyes peered up at Marinette. Marinette smiled sweetly - hoping this six year old was similar to Manon. Manon was a girl Marinette had to babysit quite often, and although she was kind she knew how to use puppy eyes to her advantage and didn’t like to be left alone.

“Kori, this is Marinette, a friend of Damian’s.”  
Koriand’r raised a brow at that, “A friend of Damian’s. I thought Jon was his only friend.”

Marinette snorted at that and watched Damian cross his arms. A slight tint of pink on his cheeks exposed him though.

“Damian and I just made croissants and I wanted to offer some to you guys. I didn’t know you were coming and feel sort of bad about imposing.”

“Croissants?” Koriand’r took one off of the plate, “Thank you. Oh - these are excellent!”  
Marinette bent down a little so Mar’i could reach the plate, “Do you want one?”

Mar’i beamed, and stood on her tiptoes to get one - or was she floating a bit? Marinette didn’t overthink it, she wouldn’t be surprised if she had powers. Despite Batman claiming he was not fond of metas, she doubted that he really disliked them that much. Plus, she had no proof that Mar’i or Koriand’r were actually metas.

Dick took a croissant as well as Cass, who just happened to be in the room as well. She was pouring over a book, mumbling the words quietly, taking a couple of bites out of the croissant. Marinette set down the plate on the coffee table and sat down on one of the couches. She sunk into the fabric, feeling overwhelming at ease. Soon, Damian moved to sit next to her and they all fell into silence.

_ September 9th, 5:34 p.m. _

Marinette ate an early dinner, eagerness flooding her stomach. Today was an off-day on patrol for her. She didn’t take many days off, but the group allowed it because - well, there were so many people in the Batman crew. Apparently they had extra help anyways.

_ The extra help was obviously Starfire, but Marinette clearly didn’t mention this. _

She eventually put two and two together.

“Wow, you must’ve been starving,” Tikki commented, floating closer.

Marinette hummed in acknowledgement before pulling out her phone. Tapping on his name, she let the phone ring.

“Marinette?”

_ Oh,  _ she hadn’t heard his voice in so long.

“Can I come over?”

Adrien exhaled, “Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll see you soon!  
> :)


	20. The Statues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, we're finally getting closer to a conclusion for one of the main plot points - hurrah! Anyways, I think Adrien and Marinette's interaction in this chapter is unique. I wanted them both to open up, but not necessarily to put the burden of their problems on one another. Just to finally see each other.

_ September 9th, 5:43 p.m. _

A silence separated the two like a wall. Marinette hugged her knees to her chest, reminding herself to breathe as Adrien stared out of a window.

“Mari,” Adrien said, “Do you remember the last time you were happy? Like, really happy without the pressure of everything else on your shoulders.”

Marinette tensed, her mind wafting over several moments with bittersweet smiles. Were those even real? Now she could feel the underlying pain that was always there. No matter how much she laughed or smiled it didn’t go away. Even her time with Adrien wasn’t exactly happy.

“No… do you?”

“I don’t think I’ve been happy since my mom died. I - I thought that if I did everything he wanted or if I went to public school and had friends that I would be happy. I thought that the house was suffocating me or that the pressure was or that  _ he  _ was but - I think I never really moved on all of the way either. Because my father never moved on, I never moved on. I tried to, but my best moments were as Cat Noir.”

“I see,” Marinette murmured, “Can I tell you something?”

“Everything.”

“I… I _never_ wanted to be Ladybug. I didn’t want to be a hero. Master Fu left it in my bedroom and I was thrown into a battle unsure about everything. Then I realized I couldn’t be Paris’ hero. It wasn’t something I was ready for. But, when I tried to give it to Alya, she was thrown into a terrible situation and the only way to save her was to become Ladybug. I never chose to be Ladybug - I chose to save people. I… I wish I could've waited a bit longer to become more confident or more mature but I guess problems don’t wait for solutions.  
“I wished constantly that Master Fu gave it to someone else. Even as I grew more confident as Ladybug - it never transferred fully. I latched onto anything, I wanted to be normal. I threw myself into everything and I wanted to be in control because I didn’t know how to relax anymore. I spent weeks sometimes without much sleep. I became more and more anxious and depressed and it built up until I was right at square one but then worse.”

“When we lost Master Fu,” Adrien whispered.

“I had to become the guardian of all of the miraculous after losing my mentor and only barely winning a battle with a girl who I thought was actually growing. It wasn’t - I wasn’t… I didn’t want to have all of that power. Then we finally had the battle between us and Hawk Moth. And we won, but it had a cost - it  _ always  _ has a cost. And we both know that there’s going to be another Hawk Moth.” Marinette felt guilt and relief at telling Adrien her problems. 

Adrien dropped his head into his hands, “I want to hate my father so much - I get angry like I’ve never felt before - but I  _ can’t.  _ Because I understand him. I wish I didn’t. Do you ever feel like that?”

“I feel…” Marinette’s throat burned, “I feel the same way about Master Fu sometimes. He wasn’t my father nor was he attacking Paris but I just wanted to be normal. I wanted to have a crush on a boy in my class, pursue fashion design, have fun with my parents and sleep at least seven hours a day. But I had to be Ladybug and nothing mattered more than that. I split myself. I don’t even know who either of those Marinette’s were.”

Adrien wiped away tears rolling down Marinette’s cheeks, “We… we didn’t deserve this much pressure did we? We were just fourteen.”

“Adrien… I want to be sixteen. I just want to be sixteen, and be with you.”

She dropped her head onto his shoulder, feeling his body shake with his own frustration, “I watched my father manipulate people’s emotions and use them for power. I watched him hurt people to use them. He hurt so many people. For his own selfish reasons that he claimed were selfless. That it was for me. Mom would’ve been so  _ disappointed. _ I wish she were here Marinette, I just want to talk with her. I just want to talk to him too.”

“I watched him… I watched him… during the last battle… he got both miraculous remember? And then he used them to bring her back but you were passed out for this part. I knew… I knew there would be a cost. Adrien, you stopped breathing. Your heart stopped beating. I held your dead body in my arms - Adrien, I felt your heart  _ stop.” _

“Wha - what?”  
“He said that there would always be a new timeline. I think he was planning on going back somehow. Your mom woke up, Adrien. But you weren’t there anymore. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry, I did what I could. I’m sorry, I should’ve just kept her alive but I couldn’t. I didn’t think too much about it. And then I watched him fall - and I just wanted you to have a chance to - I don’t - it was so stupid - I’m _sorry.”_

“Mari?”

“I’m so… I’m so…”

“Mari, breathe.”  
“I’m sorry,” Marinette hiccuped, choking on air. “I’m so sorry. I could’ve saved her but I was selfish, I just wanted things to go back to normal so I brought both you and him back. I’m sorry Adrien. I’m so sorry. I could’ve brought her back.”

“Marinette - stop! It wasn’t your place, she was dead. I had already started to come to term with that, false hope isn’t going to get us anywhere. I don’t think she could’ve fixed us and she was supposed to die. What about the cost of bringing back my father. You shouldn’t have done that.”

Watery eyes met and Marinette whimpered, “I’m going to have to pay it. Someone cruel is going to die at my hands.”

“Mari…”

“I know. I can’t take it back though. Are you mad?”

“No.” 

“Adrien… I don’t know how to do this.” Marinette closed her eyes, just feeling the warmth of his body nearby and listening for his soft breathing. He was so quiet, almost as though he didn’t want to be felt, seen or heard. “We should’ve been talking more. Been more open. I was trying to protect you because… but I think I made it worse.”

“I understand why you didn’t. I mean, finding out that my dad didn’t even flinch at my dead body is sort of terrifying. Marinette, I know I’m not exactly in the best position to tell you this, but we both need help. You need help, Mari, you are under no means expected to just be okay after seeing  _ that.  _ After forcing yourself to help everyone out of their bad spots,” Adrien paused, running a hand through his hair, “I know you went to America to be able to train for the future’s Hawk Moth, but maybe you should take some time to heal. You can’t heal everyone else if you’re not there yourself.”

Marinette opened her eyes, and studied Adrien. Sunshine blonde hair looked so dim under the moonlight. Jade eyes that were so wide, innocent, and understanding. “Adrien… thank you.”

“Thank you, Mari. You’ve saved my life so many times.” Adrien sighed, “I want to discuss something with you… it’s about being Cat Noir.”

Marinette furrowed her brows.

“I want to resign. At least for now? I don’t think I should have it anymore. When I first became Cat Noir, I viewed it as my salvation. I could do anything, I didn’t think about all of the underlying meanings behind the faux-leather suit. People were emotionally dependent on Cat Noir. I realized that. I wanted to help people but like I just said, it’s hard to be actually helpful when you’re not there yourself. I was so depressed and used to disappointment. I need to heal too, I think I realize that now. Watching Kagami and Luka and Chloe drift closer and closer to me everyday, to see their expressions. It was worse than what I was feeling before. Cat Noir is about destruction, but I want to rebuild now.”  
“I see.”

“Mari, I know you are only working for the sake of others, but I hope you’ll follow my lead. Or something similar.”

Marinette shuffled, “I need more time. There’s nobody else who…” her voice faltered, “The world doesn’t need Ladybug and Cat Noir right now, and I get this is time to focus on ourselves and move forward but it’s not that easy for me. I still have to watch after the kwamis and stay in shape. I still have to grow more. I get what you’re saying, I really do, but I am… I’m not ready for that.”  
“That’s okay. Maybe you don’t need to stop. I think we both need to figure things out ourselves, but I am here to talk whenever you need me to. I think that helping you would be enough. To fill that gap where Cat Noir once was. I liked that feeling but I relied on it too much.”

Marinette hummed, “Yeah. I’m glad I could see you Adrien.”

“We both had things to let out. We can’t fix each other’s problems though.”

“I guess not. Advice can only do so much,” Marinette scooted closer, letting her head drop onto his shoulder, “I could do some therapy, maybe? I’m not really good at this.”  
Adrien let out a hollow laugh, “Me neither. But we’ll get there. It builds up, y’know. And if it pops, it only releases so much. You have to let it out slowly.”

_ September 10th, 2:33 p.m. _

It was a nice day for Wednesday. Marinette had sunk into the day despite not getting a lot of sleep the night before. She happily drank coffee, sketched her outfits and did her school work. It was new. Not having so much on her chest, it was really new. 

She couldn’t say it was complete happiness, but it felt really good. 

Damian had met her after school, something hesitant in his eyes. “Marinette, I wanted to take you to Gotham’s Art Museum, is that okay?”

Marinette smiled, hooking her arm with his, “Yeah. _But,_ you know what I would like more…?”  
“What?” Damian burning at the expression on her face. She was so different. He felt the need to stay close to her.   
“If you showed me some of your art…” Marinette gave him a lopsided grin, “But I can wait for that.”

“You’ll get to see it,” Damian promised. “C’mon, you brought your sketch pad right? We can get gelato or something afterwards, seeing as  _ someone  _ has a sweet tooth.”

“I grew up in a bakery.”

“Well aware. It’s fairly obvious.”

Marinette sighed and fell into step with him. The streets of Gotham were bustling with people. Marinette let her eyes get caught on a couple of shops - particularly a bookstore. Marinette wasn’t a huge reader, but Damian was. Maybe she’d drag him there after the museum. She could already feel the warmth from that building. 

There was a lot to Damian. She could see it in his eyes. The more she was around him, the more curious she got. His past was dark, but he seemed to be not gripped on it. 

“There was a robbery a few years back,” Damian hummed, “So many people visit it for that reason. I think it’s a shame though, seeing as the art in here is magnificent.”

“We have that in Paris too. I’m sure you’ve heard about the Mona Lisa,” Marinette said, as though it wasn’t the most famous painting in the world, “It was stolen once. Some visit it for that reason, most visit it because it’s famous. They want to see the art piece, but they don’t want to see what’s within the paint. I like the rumor that it was Leonardo DaVinci as a female, so I admire it for that, but I tend to avoid that room in the Louvre. There’s a lot of more quiet areas if you know where to look, and those make it easier for me to sketch.”

“I can respect that,” Damian pulled her further into the museum, “I think I have just the place for you then.”

Marinette followed him through a couple of areas in the museum, taking note of anything she wanted to check back on. They finally got to a room with marble statues and the light that poured from the ceiling made her breath catch in her throat, “Woah.”

“It’s off to the side for some reason, so not many people see this area.”  
“I feel like I’m in Pride and Prejudice,” Marinette mumbled under her breath, thinking about the scene she admired the most. Miss Bennet in Mister Darcy’s house, seeing all of the marble statues. The scene had always made her feel nostalgic for some reason.

“I’ve only read the book,” Damian sat down on a nearby bench, “I guess you’re referencing an adaptation?”

“Yeah. I think it was the 2005 version. Probably the best one in my opinion. It didn’t follow the book exactly - it mostly did but - when it drifted off, it still suited the characters quite well. I think they really understood the aesthetic to be honest. Elizabeth Bennet roasting Darcy adds several years onto my life.”

“We should watch it someday then,” Damian had pulled out a book at some point, now flicking through the pages.

“Yeah. We should. The romance is nice, but I like to admire it as a whole.”

They fell into a silence soon afterwards, okay with each other’s presence. Marinette fell to her knees in front of one statue of some sort of Goddess. The fabric she was wearing looked so real, the shadows of her body underneath it even added in detail. 

“Thank you for bringing me here,” Marinette whispered.

Damian shrugged, “No problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, next chapter is going to be wild.   
> :)


End file.
